Jaune: The Gamer
by Desodus
Summary: Jaune finds out about an interesting new ability of his before he enters Beacon... His life now runs like a video game. An RPG to be exact.
1. Chapter 1

**Welp, So this actually came to me during a period of 48 hours where I had no internet access and I had already overused my 3G... So yeah, my first story in the RWBY fandom. The premise of the story came to me after I read a Korean manwha: The Gamer.**

**So yeah, I don't know if I am going to continue this or just leave it as a oneshot, because honestly, I have very little clue to go on from here.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story... seriously.**

**Hopefully you enjoy this.**

* * *

**Prologue: My Weird Ability**

Hello, my name is Jaune Arc, and I am a regular, seventeen year old. Well, regular enough, other than the fact that I've got a secret ability, kind of a weird ability when you look at it. You see, I've got this ability that shows everyone's level, exactly like a videogame. In fact, this ability treats my very life like it were a videogame; with player stats, HP bars, skill stats and trees (I think), even (honest to Monty) quests and experience system.

You see, it all started a couple of years ago when I was fifteen years old. One day I woke up, went to the bathroom to take a shower and brush my teeth before going down for breakfast, to look into the mirror to see a floating plaque above my head.

In my bleary half-awake state of mind, I only noticed it after I had finished my shower and was in the midst of brushing my teeth when I finally see it.

I promptly fell over and banged my head against the ceramic toilet's water tank.

I didn't even have time to cry out in pain before it disappeared, leaving me to then flounder around as my pyjama onesie caught and tangled my legs. It took a moment for me to untangle myself finally and stand upright, looking into the mirror, mind fully alert.

What I saw left my mouth hanging wide open enough for a beowolf to enter; there was a plaque hanging in the air directly above my head, in glowing gold font read; **The Gamer,** and right underneath it was: **Lv. 2 Jaune Arc**.

I tentatively tried to touch it based off of my reflection alone, but my hand just seemed to phase through the words, after finding no negative effects from trying to touch the floating words, I waved my right hand, then my left hand, and then both of them through the weird floating announcement over my head.

After feeling nothing from my hands, I tried to look up at it, but the words seemed to be attached to the movement of my head.

I was brought out of my shock by the sudden ringing of a bell, causing me to jump ten feet into the air, I landed in a heap on the bathroom floor again, and from the corner of my eye, a tiny window of light popped up with the following message: **Waking up has fully replenished HP and Stamina**.

Okay, so HP were my health points, but I had a Stamina meter as well?

"Honey, hurry up and come down for breakfast!" I heard my mother called from downstairs.

There was another **DING** and another window popped up:

**Quest Given!**

**Eat A Meal With Your Family!**

And on the bottom right hand corner were the buttons; **ACCEPT** and **DECLINE**.

Seriously? That's a quest?

I pressed on the **ACCEPT **button and the window disappeared.

Quickly drying myself, I got dressed in a regular pair of blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and wore a simple black hoodie over it.

All the while, my mind was racing; was my life now a videogame? and if it was, why an RPG of all types? Why couldn't it be like a dating sim or something, heck, I would be totally okay if it was like, some kind of fighting game; I could pull of some sweet combos!?

Thoughts of why my life was now all of a sudden an RPG game brought back thoughts of the 'great' Arc Family name, and with a sigh, I realized why it would chose to be the way it is.

Being part of a family of famous heroes is stressful as it is.

Stupid so-called 'Legacy'.

When I made it to the kitchen, I was stopped once more in my tracks by what my eyes were currently telling me; sitting at the kitchen table was my father reading the daily newspaper, and standing in front of the stove with her back to me was my mother.

That's pretty normal

What wasn't normal was that, they like me, had floating plaques denoting whom they were.

Above my father was; **Hunter** and belong that was; **Lv. 55 Jonathan Arc **in red. He was really strong, I was only a measly level 2.

Turning to my mother, my mouth fell open so fast i heard it hit the floor; like father, above her head, also in red was the term **Huntress **as well, but underneath it...

underneath that, it said; **Lv. 70 Joanne Arc**.

Holy Oum! Since when was mom that powerful? My sweet, sometimes overbearing, and totally overprotective mother... there was just no way...

I was brought out of my reveries by my father; "Are you just going to stand there, boy? Sit down"

"Y-Yes dad" I answered, quickly moving forwards and taking a seat beside him at the table.

"Now, now" chimed mother, turning from the stove to face my father. "Don't be so hard on him this early in the day" before turning to face me with a smile. "How are you this morning, Jauney?"

"F-Fine" I answered. before remembering how she had just addressed me. "Please stop calling me that!" I cried. "I'm not a kid anymore!"

"You'll always be my little 'Jauney' to me" she said, there was a twinkle in her eye that I did not like one bit as she turned back to the stove with a hum.

There was silence at the table as mother placed the food in front of us and the three of us began to eat. My father was still reading the newspaper, and mother was humming quietly to herself. I was fine being left alone with my thought about what was currently happening to me; since my life was like an RPG now, there should be theoretical skills and other stuff I could learn... theoretically.

"Um, dad?" I asked, there was only one way to test this out.

"Yes, Jaune?" he answered, not looking up from behind the paper.

"Cou-Could you teach me how to use a sword?" I asked tentatively.

The paper rustling stopped, and then the wall about Vale's current economy came down as he finally faced me fully.

To my shock and slightly creeping horror, there were visible tears welling in his eyes.

I was suddenly lurched out of my chair as my father grabbed me and pulled me into a bone crushing hug.

GAH! I could just barely breath!

over my father's shoulder, another window popped up before me. This one said:

**New Skill Learned: Physical Endurance Lv. 1**

**Type: Passive**

**Current: 3% reduced physical damage.**

**Description: The body's durability increases and takes less damage.**

Seriously!? That kind of skill was initiated by my dad's bear hug?

"Dear, you're crushing him" my mother said patiently, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I've waited so many years for this" my father said as he released me, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye as he held me before him.

"Yes dear" mother said as she began to rub circles into my father's back, like one would do with a child to calm them down. "But first, Jaune is going to have to do the dishes before the two of you begin playing with swords"

I gave a groan at that. Standing up, I sighed as I made my way to the kitchen sink with the stack of dirty dishes and pots and pans needed to be clean. As I did so, before my eyes, **+50 exp** appeared and disappeared as a short message appeared before me: **Quest Complete!**

So I had just gained fifty experience points from eating with my family... huh

Just as I began to run one of the plates under the tap; a window appeared again:

**New Skill Learned: Washing Dishes Lv. 1!**

**Type: Passive**

**Current: 5% increased speed of dishwashing.**

**Description: The speed and quality of making dishes clean.**

Even that's a skill!? I stared blankly at the pop-up until it disappeared on its own and I was left standing with my pile of dirty dishware.

I guess I should start leveling that up... I guess?

* * *

When I finished washing the dishes I received another pop-up telling me: **Dishwashing Skill increased by 1**.

With that done, I made my way outside to where my father waited. He was standing by a stump with a wooden sword resting upon his shoulder, and another stuck tip-first into the ground in front of him.

Another pop-up appeared; I was getting used to them, they weren't surprising me anymore:

**New Skill Learned: Observation**

**Type: Active**

**Description: Used to gather slight better detailed information**

Deciding to test this ability out, I turned to the wooden sword in the ground. _Observe_. I thought at it. Instantly, a new window appeared before my eyes.

**Item: Wooden Sword (Common)**

**Damage: 5**

**Durability: Low**

**Description: A sword fashioned from wood.**

After that windowed, I picked up the wooden sword and another one appeared, this one telling me that I had received a new skill:

**New Skill Learned: Sword Mastery Lv. 1!**

**Type: Passive**

**Current: 3% increase to damage dealt & 2% increased to attack speed. **

**Description: the ability to wield a sword skillfully.**

"Let's begin, son" my father said cheerfully. "I will teach you how to wield a sword like how your grandfather taught me!"

I spent the better part of the day with my father out in the heat drilling myself to swing a sword. Father also spent some time going over body positioning and stances. Surprisingly, no new windows popped up during this time.

Eventually, it got to midday, and dad called for a break. The second I stopped swinging, **+100 exp** flashed by my eyes, and several new windowed popped up congratulating me: **Sword Mastery Increased by 1** **Level! **showed up three timesand then a single: **Stamina increased by 2!**

I wonder if I could see my own personal stats?

No sooner had I thought that, did a new window appear before me. It was a long rectangular window:

**Name: Jaune Arc**

**Class: The Gamer**

**Level: Lv. 2**

**HP: 100/100**

**Stamina: 01/32**

**STR: 4**

**VIT: 5**

**DEX: 4**

**INT: 3**

**WIS: 3**

**LUK: 1**

**Points: 0**

**Money: 50 Lien**

Well these stats are depressing.

my current fatigue was directly based off of my stamina, and that Stamina bar does not look that good.

"How is my little hunter doing?" a new voice callout out.

I looked up to see mom coming towards the two of us.

"It's only been a couple of hours, dear" my father said with a huff. "In fact, I would be greatly surprised if Jaune has gotten remotely better from just swinging his sword the past couple of hours"

I gave a rueful smile; if only he knew.

"Well, then come in for lunch now, boys" mom said as she turned to make her way back inside.

"No thanks, love" dad answered as he picked up his wooden sword again. "Jaune and I are going to spend another hour here"

My mom stopped in her tracks, at the same time, another window popped up:

**New Skill Learned: Danger Sense Lv. 1**

**Type: Passive**

**Current: 3% increase in danger perception.**

**Description: the ability to perceive danger in a timely fashion.**

How in the world did this skill suddenly get activated?

"What did you say, dear?" mom asked, her back still facing us. I watched in shock as four new windows popped up, each with the same message: **Danger Sense Increased by 1 Level!**

Wait.

Was mom the source of danger?

My eyes widened, the denotation above her head had changed from **Huntress**, to now **Legendary Housewife**, and upon closer look at my mom's back, I could barely make out some kind of black aura around her body.

"We'll eat later, honey" my dad said dismissively, oblivious to the coming storm.

I received another five(!) messages, all of them once more: **Danger Sense Increased by 1 Level.** So in total, that particular skill had increased to level 10 in the span of several seconds.

All from my mom.

There was one more message after all of the ones with my Danger Skill: it was a message saying: **Your Level has Increased by 1!**

With the increase of my Danger Sense, I can now clearly see the malevolent aura surrounding my mom, luckily, it was directed at dad right now.

Whom was still oblivious to it all.

Suddenly, moving so fast I missed it completely, my mom disappeared and reappeared behind dad and gave him a smack to the back of his head with her open palm.

My eyes were totally bugging out: when the strike hit, there was even, in bold red letters, the words '**Critical Strike!**' appear above my mom, and even a red health bar appeared over my dad's head. I watched as the bar lost only a sliver of itself, but the animations surrounding it said he had lost 10hp out of a grand total of 5750hp.

Also above my dad's head was a giant swirl, turning counter-clockwise with the word in grey: **STUNNED!**.

Mom then grabbed dad by the collar of his shirt and began to drag him back to the house: "Come now, Jauney" she called over her shoulder, I could just make out a sickly sweet smile on her face. "The food's going to get cold soon"

I could only nod numbly and follow my mom as she hefted my dad like a sack of potatoes and carried him over one shoulder the entire time back to the house.

* * *

Sometime after lunch, and after I had received 100exp from eating lunch with my family, I was currently in my room.

So it had said I had leveled up earlier, that means there should be some kind of points distribution to be done.

No sooner had I thought that did my Stat page come up once more, though this time, there were several difference from when I had last seen it this morning; my total HP amount was now 150, Stamina had increased to 34, it now said Lv. 3, and there were actual 'Points' to allot, a total of 7 skill points to be exact.

Looking over the possible places to put my new skill points I think the best possible place to put them all for now would be strength; that would help my Sword Mastery, I think.

With that done, I decided to take a look at my abilities. A new window replaced my Stat page, this one showing a few square images in slots. Moving my hand over to the first skill with the picture of a man in i think some kind of meditative position. I clicked on it and a new window appeared with the skill.

**Skill: A Gamer's Mind**

**Type: Passive**

**Description: the Ability to calm down during times of stress/adrenaline to make critical analysis/observation of current surroundings/events.**

So like, if I was scared out of my mind, it would eliminate the sense of fear so that I would be able to do stuff when I otherwise would be scared stiff?

That sounds awesome!

Closing the current window, I went back to my Skill Page and selected the next picture, this time of a really buff arm.

**Skill: A Gamer's Body**

**Type: Passive**

**Description: When taking damage, the body will receive a mild sense of pain, but will soon disappear, leaving only a decrease of the Health Bar (Unless stated otherwise) and no other physical remnants of damage taken.**

So as long as I don't die in a fight, I only receive the _sense_ of pain and not like actual broken bones and stuff... Unless stated otherwise... Whatever that meant.

The next two skills over were Physical Endurance and the Washing Dishes skills. After that was my Sword Mastery skill and finally, there was my Danger Sense skill, which had leveled up the fastest out of all of them.

* * *

That was all two years ago, now, I had successfully reached Level 10!

Bringing up my Stats Page brought a sense of pride to myself.

**Name: Jaune Arc**

**Class: The Gamer**

**Level: Lv. 10**

**HP: 510/510**

**Stamina: 100/100**

**STR: 28**

**VIT: 15**

**DEX: 15**

**INT: 10**

**WIS: 4**

**LUK: 4**

**Points: 0**

**Money: 1500 Lien**

I'm ready to prove myself at Beacon. I was able to train my Sword Mastery to Level 25, I got the Block skill about a week after I started training with dad and its now at Level 18, and I also got an Armor Skill about a year ago when dad bought me my first set of armor, that's about Level 15 now.

My Physical Endurance Skill is also pretty good at 23; fighting against dad, even with only wooden swords is a painful experience.

But even my trained skills have nothing compared to what I have in my inventory. Bringing up the Inventory tab, I feasted my eyes upon _Crocea Mors_.Apparently, it has been passed down from generation to generation of the Arc Family since it was used by John Arc during the Great War.

First time I ever heard of that too.

Anyway, what's so great of this sword, and the shield that came with it is the fact that it has some kind of unknown special ability.

Clicking on the item in the inventory slot, I brought up the two information windows:

For the sword:

**Item: **_**Crocea Mors **_**(Legendary)**

**Damage: 200**

**Durability: Impeccable **

**?:?**

**?:?**

**?:?**

**Description: Arc Family heirloom. **

And for the shield:

**Item: **_**Crocea Armun **_**(Legendary)**

**Defense Rating: 75**

**Durability: Impeccable**

**Ability: Able to transform into a sheath **

**?:?**

**Description: Arc Family heirloom. **

Other than the absurd stats given by the two items, there were also the weird question marks in the Item Window. They weren't Stat related I think, so there are just things I have yet to be able to unlock pertaining to these two things.

Anyway, I will probably unlock whatever secrets they are hiding as I go through Beacon, and become someone worthy of the Arc name... I just hope that mom and dad never find out how I got into Beacon in the first place.

I shook my head to chase away the guilty thoughts as I stepped onto the dust plane heading towards Beacon, surrounded by what appeared to be my fellow students... All whom seemed to be quite a few Levels ahead of me...

I looked up from staring at my feet to look around myself; I was in a throng of other teens all trying to get on board the dust plane as well, their bodies were so pressed together that it was hard to make out the individual tags attached to everyone above their head, but after several seconds of me squinting all around myself, I was able to conclude that yes... I was currently the lowest leveled 'player' here; everyone else was currently Level 18 or higher.

Holy Monty, Oum and Rooster!

Did my training not mean a thing... or was I always just that far behind everyone else?

All of my pride and sense of accomplishment of what I had done the past two years evaporated in a matter of seconds. I was left gritting my teeth in frustration as I squeezed my eyes closed.

But my mind cleared and I was left to take a couple of deep breathes as I stood waiting to show my ticket to the attendant.

At least that Gamer's Mind skill came to good use, I could have had a complete total meltdown, and that would have totally made me endearing to my fellow schoolmates.

It looks like I need to grind even further.

When I finally stepped onto the plane, a new window popped up:

**Entering Dungeon Area: Dust Plane**

**- Motion Sickness Debuff Active**

Motion Sickness? That doesn't sound too bad.

* * *

**Anyway, I feel like I didn't do the character of Jaune justice, as in that I failed to properly characterize him, especially in this first person POV style of writing. If I do continue this story, I will try my best to keep in canon characterization for Jaune.**

**Have a nice day,**

**Desodus**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow, I posted the prologue right before I went to sleep, so I was not prepared to find over a hundred emails from of follows, favorites, and reviews. Thanks so much guys.**

**But seriously, I'm prone to periods of writer's block. But that won't stop me from trying!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing; characters, setting, etc...sadly**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Arrival at Beacon**

I was wrong. I was so wrong! Oh sweet Monty, forgive me of my sins! I was currently curled up in a ball with my legs tucked into my chest on one of the pews in some part of the airship.

What did I ever do to deserve this? I gave a groan as my stomach attempted to learn how to , my hand coming up to cover my mouth and the bile trying to escape my stomach.

I was just barely able to swallow down breakfast a second time before I couldn't take it anymore; I have to get to a bathroom before I threw up all over myself.

Or Dust forbid... over someone else.

I was taking short shallow breathes and keeping my head down at all times, that is, until I passed a row of windows on the airship.

There I got a good look at the city below us.

Too bad I couldn't appreciate it as it caused my nausea to worsen.

I made my way to the bathroom as fast as possible, I was rushing now with an arm around my stomach, and a hand over my mouth.

Wait.

Where _was_ the bathro-?

Uh Oh!

With that thought, I groaned as I threw up all over the floor, I had to brace myself with my hands on my knees as to not accidentally fall into my own pool of vomit.

Several moments passed before I finished introducing the ground with what I had for breakfast. I was breathing heavily at the end, but luckily, it looks like the worse of my nausea was over.

I unsteadily stood up, using the airship wall as a support, grimacing down at the pile of vomit: I'm going to need to clean that up.

I still need to find that bathroom I guess...

* * *

After I cleaned up the mess I left in the viewing area, I spent the remainder of the trip to Beacon Academy holed up in a stall in the bathroom for fear of throwing up in public again.

And totally not because I had just humiliated myself in front of my schoolmates.

Though, at some points I was holding onto the toilet bowl for dear life as my stomach flip-flopped and somersaulted all around inside my body.

When the airship touched down, I was the first to get off, and when I did, I kissed the ground like a long lost lover... not that I would know how that actually feels like or anything...

Anyway, a window popped up before me:

**Dungeon Passed!**

**- 300exp**

I swear, I get experience points for the dumbest things, it's like whatever this 'is' is trying to throw experience points at me as much as possible.

Not that I minded of course. I'll take every little bit I can get, thank you very much!

I stood up after a couple of moments of worshipping solid, stable ground and took a deep breath. Letting it out in a whoosh as I got my first good look at Beacon Academy.

Wow.

Just wow.

I was still a long ways off from the actual buildings of the Academy, but from where I was standing, this place was humongous! The only thing I could see so far is a giant castle and it pretty much dominated much of the scenery of the immediate area.

Well, if this _is _the place where some of the best hunters and huntresses of Vytal go to train before doing missions on their own or whatever.

This was where mom and dad were taught and trained.

Taking another deep breath I began making my way to the large, and totally not imposing, castle before me.

Though my focus was drawn from the building as the sound of a large explosion reached my ears, I almost fell over from the shaking. Turning around, I was greeted by the sight of dust clearing away from two standing girls, explosive residue surrounding them, leaving scorched and cracked cobblestone circling the two girls and several cases of luggage.

Though that wasn't the most distinctive feature of the two girls; what really drew my attention were their names, titles, and Levels.

The first girl, decked out in an ensemble of red and black:

**[Red Riding Hood]**

**Lv. 28 Ruby Rose**

And then there was the girl standing opposite of here and wearing all white, even her hair was white... She looked beautiful... Anyway!

**[Schnee Heiress]**

**Lv. 28 Weiss Schnee**

Holy Oum! These girls were powerful, and they are only around my age.

Man, just how am I going to catch up with people like that?

Suddenly, a new window popped up in front of me:

**Quest Given!**

**Make a New Friend!**

Um okay... I pressed the accept button and the window disappeared, was I suppose to befriend one of the girls currently arguing or something? Is there even a deadline to finish this quest?

I could just make out some of what the two of them were saying and from what I was able to gather, the girl in red, Ruby, had caused an explosion somehow with the Dust that Weiss had brought in one of the cases currently on the floor.

Eventually, they were joined by another girl whom had a black bow on top of her head:

**[Feline Ninja]**

**Lv. 29 Blake Belladonna**

She's an even higher level than the other two girls!

I was left slightly open mouthed at such high leveled individuals my age; just how in the world of Remnant were they able to obtain that much strength?

I gave another sigh as the three of them talked for a small period of time, no longer arguing, I couldn't hear what was being said, but then the Schnee Heiress stomped away in a huff, and then the girl with the bow walked away, leaving little Red Riding Hood alone.

I watched as Ruby, the little Red, crumple down upon her knees and then fell back, lying on the stone as the Schnee Heiress' servants picked up the discard luggage and continued on their way, barely sparing the sprawled girl a glance.

Taking pity on the lost girl, I made my way over to her, when I reached her, she opened her eyes to look up at me, and I was slightly startled by the color of her eyes, they were a metallic silver that seemed to shimmer in the sunlight.

"Hi" I said, extending a hand to help her up. "The name's Jaune"

her gaze went from my face to my outreached hand before taking it and pulling herself up: "I'm Ruby"

When fully upright, she then squinted at me for a second before her eyes widened. "Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?" she asked.

"Um... ah" I didn't really have an excuse...so: "...Yes?"

"So you're Vomit Boy!" she exclaimed, pointing at my face.

I scrunched up my face at that. It wasn't my fault that the airship had such a hard debuff on it! "Well then, um..." my mind raced for something to say in the face of such a bad nickname... "Then you're Crater Face!"

A new window popped up between the two of us, almost causing me to fall backwards:

**New Skill Learned: Snappy Retorts Lv. 1**

**Type: Passive**

**Description: The ability to make snappy retorts or comebacks at appropriate times for maximum sass.**

Wow. I'm speechless.

There really is a skill for everything...

"T-That was totally an accident!"

I turned my attention back to the girl beside me to see her pouting at me, her cheeks puffing out in annoyance.

With a start, I realized she looked really cute like that, like a puppy, and I quickly turned away to not face her. "Yeah? Well, motion sickness is a very common problem for many people!"

* * *

We began walking, a somewhat awkward silence between us as we followed the cobblestone road. At least Ruby knew where to go for orientation... I think there's an orientation.

It was a while before the silence was finally broken by Ruby: "So... I got this thing"

As she said that, she grasped the weird rectangular object on her lower back and flourished it around, as she did so, several locking mechanisms went off as the object expanded into an honest-to-Monty scythe that was almost twice as tall as her.

I jumped back when the blade of the scythe easily sank into the cobblestone ground.

"That's a big scythe" I said, greatly intimidated, the blade was at least half of my height alone. The thing must also weigh a ton too, but Ruby was waving it around like it was nothing.

"It's also a customizable high-impact sniper rifle" she said as she grasped her weapon in two hands and audibly chambered a round.

I understood a couple of those words: "So it's also a big gun?"

"Yes" she said with a smile. "It's also a gun"

"That's cool" I said, and I meant it, I mean, whoever made it was probably a madman, but it did look really cool, and it looked like Ruby knew how to use it too.

"Do you want to hold it?" she asked, offering the scythe to me. "Its name is Crescent Rose"

Not wanting to sound rude, I agreed: "Ah, sure" taking the weapon from her with both hands.

Oh wow, it was actually really light, I could actually hold it quite easily. I rotated it until I could plant the butt of the weapon on the ground.

_Observe_. I thought at it, and a new window popped up:

**Item: Crescent Rose (Unique Rare)**

**Damage: 175**

**Durability: Very High**

**Ability: Able to transform into a sniper rifle.**

**Ability: Able to fold itself for easier transportation.**

When I was looking at the stats, another , this time red, window popped up in front of it:

**Inaccessible Weapon.**

**Insufficient DEX Stat.**

**DEX Stat needed: 50**

**Insufficient STR Stat.**

**STR Stat Needed: 75**

"Really cool" I said as I handed the weapon back to its rightful owner. Holy Oum did I have a long ways to go before even thinking of trying to use something like that, but I didn't need any of that stuff! I got my legendary sword!

"So what do you have?" she asked as she placed away her scythe, folding on its frame until she placed it back under her cloak. She looked at me expectantly, her hands behind her back as she rocked on the ball of her feet.

I pulled out _Crocea Mors_ and _Crocea Armun_ in sheath form. "I got this sword" I answered as I pulled it from _Crocea Armun_ with a _SHING!_. "And this transforming sheath" I said as I pressed the hidden switch to cause the sheath to extend out into a kite shield. "It turns into a lightweight shield"...or is it the other way around?

"So what do they do?" she asked, looking at my sword expectantly.

"Well, the sword cuts stuff, and the shield blocks stuff" I said with the most seriousness I could muster into my voice, maintaining direct eye contact with Ruby the entire time.

The her face went from a look of wonder to a complete look of disapproval, giving me an 'are you serious?' kind of deadpan look to show she was not amused.

I burst in a short bout of laughter. "I totally had you for a second there" I crowed, smiling down at Ruby.

"Very funny" she said with a roll of her eyes. "But seriously, is there anything they do?"

"Nope" I answered with a shrug. "My sword and shield are actually family heirlooms from the Great War where my great-great-grandfather fought in"

"That's cool!" she said, brightening as she eyed the sword. "Not many people enjoy the classics these days!"

"Yeah, they've got some history, but your scythe is pretty outrageous, who built it?" I asked as I put away my sword and shield.

"I did" she answered, beaming up at me proudly. "All students at Signal forge their own weapons... I man have kinda gone overboard when making mine" she said as she scratched her head and laughed awkwardly. "I'm kinda dork for weapons"

"That's... That's really, really cool" I said with wonder, no wonder she was so high leveled; she's done so much already, and that's before coming to Beacon in the first place. And Ruby was at least a couple of years younger than me as well.

I should have spent more time training, probably maybe a stricter regime... and most likely not all that time I spent teaching myself how to dance.

But that was worth it... I think.

"So Jaune, you know where we're going?" she asked, causing me to stop in my tracks, and her stopping as well.

"Wait" I said, turning to her. "I thought _ you_ knew where you were going?"

"Um, no, I was following you" she said with a short shake of her head.

"And I thought I was following _you_" I said with a sigh.

Looking around, the two of us were currently on a cobblestone walkway almost in front of the big castle of Beacon, there was a stone fountain in front of us that led to several other walkways, each going a separate direction.

"Um, I guess we keep going towards the big castle in front of us?" I ventured. It sounded the most plausible at the moment.

"That sounds good!" Ruby said, nodding her head.

So the two of us made our way towards the big castle-like building of Beacon Academy. I just really hope that we're going to right way, I mean, there weren't any directions given to us, and there weren't any visible landmarks so far.

* * *

Eventually, the two of us were able to find Beacon's large main hall where all the other first years were gathered. The place was massive, a circular building almost like a coliseum from Mistral. But the design was all gothic Vale, with the high arches and lots of pointy tips everywhere.

Just when the two of us entered the building, Ruby was called away by some blonde: "Hey Ruby! Over here, I saved you a spot!"

"I gotta go!" she said, sounding really excited. "I'll talk to you after the ceremony!" she said as she waved goodbye as she made her way to her friend.

Said friend had long, blonde hair that fell upon her back like a wave. She was:

**[Punny Brawler]**

**Lv. 30 Yang Xiao Long**

At this point, I'm not even surprised anymore, the amount of people with such high levels and I've seen to have seen them all, what are the odds?

Maybe I should have put more points into Luck...

My eyes glanced over when a new window appeared to inform me of the completion of the quest...

The quest... oh yeah! Make a friend. I guess I did make a friend here, I completely forgot while we were walking together. I actually didn't feel intimidated at all during our walk, in fact, it was... refreshing to talk to her.

I even learned some cool stuff like that she fought the notorious gentleman thief; Roman Torchwick, and that was how she had been given admission into Beacon a full two years earlier than her peers.

looking over the experience gained I was surprised when +**500exp** appeared, and then another window popped: **Your Level has Increased by 1!**

Followed by: **Stamina Increased by 2!**

Well that's pretty good, now where to put the points?

Opening my Stat Page, perusing my currently level of skills, my attention was drawn from my Stats when someone began speaking through the ballroom's speakers:

_"I'll...keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge-to hone your craft and acquire new skills-and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose-direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."_

I found myself nodding along to what the man had to say. Said man was:

**[Headmaster]**

**Lv. 65 Ozpin**

I came here to become a great hunter, one worthy of the Arc Family name. Even if everyone here were technically better than me, that didn't matter, all I had to do was grind my way up. I don't have to make a name for myself at school, just able to learn and grow as much as possible, and like Ozpin had said; I have to take that first step.

It sounds simple enough...

Then again, I actually haven't fought anything before... biggest threat I ever faced was the neighbor's cat when it tried to claw my face...

_"You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready"_ I looked up to see a woman of vague recollection speaking after Ozpin had finished himself and was making his way off stage. _"You are dismissed"_ with that, she too, left the stage and the building.

She was:

**[Teacher]**

**Lv. 63 Glynda Goodwitch**

After she had left as well, taking a glance at the top right corner of my immediate area, I was able to see what time it was; and currently, I had a couple of hours before I needed to be back in the ballroom.

'Be ready' she had said. Well, there wasn't any time like the present to get some more grinding done.

With that, I did an about-face and walked right back out of the ballroom. A few people were also outside, some walking in groups or just in ones and twos.

There was a commotion in front of me where a girl in pink and white was dragging her friend in green and white by the arm, all the while, cheering about pancakes, while the other person had a look of exasperation upon his face.

Walking around the duo, I looked around the surrounding area; now where was a good place to get some swings in?

There wasn't much in the immediate area. Well, there appeared to be a small woods area right in front of the ballroom, I guess I could go there away from prying eyes and whatnot.

Making my way there, I suddenly stopped and snuck a glance behind me; I was getting this really weird feeling that someone was following me, but for the life of me, couldn't find anyone nor could I shake the feeling though.

There wasn't anything popping up in new windows, so I guess it just might be nerves or something minor.

After going a bit of a way into the wooded area -after judging that there would be no one near me- I opened my Stats page, ah yes, I still had some points to use.

I think I'm going to put one point each into Vitality and Dexterity, three into Intelligence, and the last two into Strength to round that up to 30 points!

I checked my Sword Mastery progress bar and saw that I was coming close to leveling it up again, just a bit of grinding needed to finish the exp. bar.

With that done, I pulled out _Crocea Mors_ from the scabbard form of _Crocea Armun_ and...

I began hitting at trees with my sword.

It totally looks stupid, but it also slowly but surely, fills up the experience bar for the next level of mastery. More than once had dad caught me doing this exact thing.

He thought I was trying to ruin the wooden training swords and had reprimanded me each time.

My Physical Endurance skill got _alot_ of exp points.

I kept an eye on my Stamina meter and watched as it slowly decreased. Apparently, other than power attacks, Stamina decreased at a per-minute-rate. Currently it decreased at two points per five minutes.

I threw in some power strikes to speed up the progress, but that left me empty of Stamina pretty fast.

After an hour of doing this, -and taking a few short breaks in between to recuperate Stamina- a chime went off, signalling the completion of experience needed to level up the skill.

I gave a sigh of relief as I leaned against the same tree I had been slashing at for the past hour and a half, the trunk now sporting dozens of deep cuts, one section was hacked away so much that there was the off chance that the tree just might fall over from its own weight.

I looked up to the sky; it was now slowly getting dark, I guess I should head back... and probably take a shower before sleeping.

Taking a deep breath, I placed _Crocea Mors_ back in its partner and made my way back to the ballroom.

I scratched my neck as I looked around -there _still_ was that feeling of being watched- my Danger Sense skill was not gaining experience though, so there wasn't anything malicious in the general area, but there was still this neck tingling feeling all the same.

"Is there anyone there?" I called out suddenly.

There was no reply.

I gave a short laugh and shook my head. I was probably just psyching myself out before initiation.

* * *

I returned the ballroom to find rows upon rows of sleeping bags arrayed upon the floor.

I stopped in my tracks... where was my luggage? I had placed my things in the airship hold, and wasn't told to take them back when we got here, so I assume the Beacon staff were handling our luggage.

"Hey!" someone called out, I turned around to see a man in overalls heading towards me. "Are you Jaune Arc?"

"Yes..." I answered. "Is there a problem?"

He was:

**[Worker]**

**Lv. 8 John Walkins**

"Hmm? Not at all" he answered before handing me a piece of paper. "We were handing out locker assignments and were unable to find you earlier"

"Oh, um, sorry" I answered as I took the piece of paper. "Thanks"

"Yep" he said as he turned around and went on his way. "Are you Pyrrha Nikos?" I heard him call out behind me.

So, at least I got my stuff now. Just have to get my change of clothes and go take that shower. Taking a glance at the piece of paper, it said my designated locker was number 636.

Eventually, I found my locker and found my dufflebags and suitcase inside it.

When I finished my shower and stepped back into the ballroom, I was once more bombarded by many, many other people, their names, levels, and titles. There were so many that it was giving me a headache.

I grabbed an empty sleeping bag and tucked myself in without any preamble, trying to tune out all the noise coming from the other occupants of the room.

It seriously sounds like there's a fight going on.

I closed my eyes and then everything went dark.

* * *

**I think I'm starting to get a feel for how I want to portray Jaune, well, it's starting to grow in my eyes, not sure about the reader's point of view. I also feel slightly unsatisfied with writing this chapter, I don't know why. Might be because I still struggle with writing Jaune's characterization.**

**Well, next part is the Emerald Forest! Who's excited to see Jaune's partner? **

**Hahaha, just kidding, it's still going to be Pyrrha... ****Or is it?**

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter**

**Desodus**


	3. Chapter 3

**Welcome back Ladies and Gentlemen! I am on a roll!**

**Though that might be just because I am following canon events currently...**

**Muse, don't fail me now! **

**Anyway, enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own not the setting, the characters, or even the etc.**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Initiation**

I woke up with little fanfare. Well, other than the usually message of my HP and Stamina bars being fully replenished.

Today was the day; Initiation Day at Beacon Academy. I don't know how we were going to be graded, or even what actually is being graded on.

I stretched as I stood up from my sleeping bag, feeling kinks all over my body; the floor is not a kind place to sleep on it seems, but luckily, they disappeared in seconds.

I don't really know what to do with the sleeping bag, but most of the other guys were just ignoring them in preference of packing up and leaving to wherever.

I wonder when the initiation is performed, because neither Headmaster Ozpin nor did Professor Goodwitch say a specific period of time, other than the fact that it will happen today.

Probably be sometime later in the morning.

I shrugged as I walked outside -keeping my head low- I could make out that a bunch of students were making their way down the left hand path.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a sign pointing down the left-hand path with the word "CAFETERIA" written on it.

So that was where everyone was going! In fact, I was pretty hungry myself, especially after having thrown up breakfast and eaten cereal bars for lunch and dinner.

My stomach gurgled in agreement as I grimaced; I hope no one heard that.

The entire time on my way to the cafeteria amongst the throng of people, I kept my eyes averted to the ground.

Once inside, I made my way over to the order line.

I didn't look up until it was my turn to get food.

"I'll have bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast, please" I requested to the cafeteria lady behind the serving counter.

"Just a moment, dear" she said as she disappeared into what was presumably the kitchen, before reappearing a second later carrying a plate topped high with crispy bacon, hot scrambled eggs, and several pieces of toast slathered with butter. "Here you go"

"Thank you" I said as I accepted the plate and turned to find a secluded place to eat in peace.

From the corner of my eye, I could make out a short redheaded girl sitting alone in one of the back rows of tables. I couldn't tell, but I was pretty sure that that was Ruby, the girl I met yesterday.

Her friend from yesterday appeared to be sitting with another group of friends a couple of tables further away.

Ruby herself seemed to be lost in thought; picking at her food while resting her head in the palm of a hand.

I stopped in my tracks.

I shouldn't. I really shouldn't.

But I did.

I made my way over to Ruby's table and sat down in front of her.

She sat up straight, a startled look on her face at my sudden interruption, before recognition replaced it as she looked up at my face.

"Oh, hi Jaune" she said, smiling at me.

"Hello Ruby" I said in return as I began eating. "How are you today?"

"Oh, fine, I guess" she answered dispassionately, still picking at her eggs.

"You nervous for initiation?" I asked, stuffing my face with some really good toast. I was really, really hungry.

"No, not really" she answered.

"Oh, um, okay then"

Well that was a dead-end... Um, I had no other topics to talk about with Ruby, and she didn't seem to want to talk either, so the two of us were left in a somewhat awkward silence again, like the time when we were heading to the ballroom.

This time, I decided to be the to break the silence: "So, do you have any idea as to what we're doing for initiation?" I asked.

"Um, not really, no" she answered, her face scrunching slightly in thought. "But I think we get partners or teams sometime soon"

"Partners? Teams?" I asked, totally out of the loop.

"Yeah" she answered, giving me a confused look. "All teams are made with a pair of partners. All Hunter Academies do this"

"Oh" first time I ever heard of this. "Do we get to pick our partners or teams or something?"

"Um, I don't know" she answered, a look of fear this time on her face. "It's a secret tradition, I think"

"Okay, thanks" I said as we lapsed into a period of silence once more.

"I'll see you at initiation, Jaune" Ruby said as she stood up with her half-empty tray.

"Bye" I said as I watched her walk away.

I guess she wasn't in the mood to talk.

I remained at the table on my own until I finished eating my delicious breakfast. I stood up and placed the tray at the return station and made my way out of the cafeteria.

I should get back to my locker and get my armor on for initiation.

On my way there, I saw less of other people, so I was able to look around Beacon a bit as I walked. I thought the castle-building was large, it wasn't the only thing, Beacon was like a small city onto itself.

There was a grocery store to the left of me just ahead, a store selling school supplies across from it, and next to that was a coffee shop.

Once inside the locker room, it was to find it lacking in other people as well, oddly enough. There was Ruby with Yang in front of me. And farther into the room there was the Schnee heiress, Weiss with another girl whom...

You're kidding me!?

**[The Amazon]**

**Lv. 30 Pyrrha Nikos**

It's like all the high level students are clumped in one single little area and I'm just walking into it all the time.

Man, I wish I was Level 35, I bet I could do some crazy things; like take down a Nevermore on my own, or even maybe a Deathstalker! That would be cool.

But I'm not Level 35...

But I could just level myself _to_ level 35 and be awesome!

Just need to grind... alot of grinding.

It looked like Ruby was currently in an argument with Yang, so I passed them as quickly as possible. But when I was passing Weiss and Pyrrha, I heard a bit of their conversation; it looked like the Schnee heiress wanted to be on the same team as Pyrrha. It looked like Pyrrha wasn't adverse to that idea either.

I wonder whom I will be paired with? Or if it's like the first day of school where you are told to introduce yourself and have to randomly chose someone as a partner.

"Hey!" I heard someone call out. "How do you think teams are going to be picked?"

I stopped walking and turned around to see Pyrrha looking at me with a smile. She must be talking to me; there weren't anyone else near us or even in the room other than Ruby and Yang, and those too were still arguing.

While Pyrrha smiled at me, Weiss on the other hand was giving me a death glare that was sending my Danger Sense into overdrive: **Danger Sense Skill Increased by 1 Level!**

I could literally see the disapproval and distaste coming from her. The metaphorical daggers were being drilled into my eyes.

Best to back out of this situation as quick as possible; "Um, I think they're going to be randomized to an extent" I answered, scratching my head, making to turn around and go on my way. "Though I don't know for sure, in fact, I found out about getting a partner just this morning"

"I'm Pyrrha, Pyrrha Nikos" she said, extending a hand to shake. Forcing me to stop and face her fully.

"Jaune, Jaune Arc" I answered, taking the hand and giving a quick shake before letting go.

Pyrrha had this smile on her face that seemed slightly off, like she knew something secret, but was having trouble holding it in.

I smiled somewhat awkwardly in return; there was something about Pyrrha that was familiar though, had I seen here somewhere else before?

"True" Pyrrha said, continuing the conversation "I feel letting the chips fall where they may also brings around something new"

I was pulled from speaking further when I felt someone tapping on my shoulder, I looked around to see it was Weiss Schnee the one doing that.

When I turned around, Weiss interceded between where Pyrrha and I were standing.

"Hello... Jaune, was it?" she said, though I think it was phrased as a question. "Weiss Schnee. Do you have any idea whom I am? Let alone who Pyrrha Nikos is?"

"Um" I took a total shot in the dark: "Are you the heiress of the Schnee Company?"

"Correct" she said with a satisfied nod. "But do you have any idea whom _that_ is" she gestured with her arms at Pyrrha Nikos"

"Hi again!" Pyrrha said with a short wave as we made eye-contact again.

"That's Pyrrha Nikos" I answered. I just wanted to get my armor on, not talk to other people.

"She's not _just_ Pyrrha Nikos" Weiss said with a roll of her really light-blue eyes. "She graduated at the top of her class at Sanctum... She's won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row, setting a new record..." Weiss was getting really into the topic "For Dust's sake! She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!"

That was when it clicked, I _had _seen Pyrrha before! Practically every morning for like a year, I ate that cereal almost religiously, it was so sweet, but tasted so good!

"That's where I've seen you before!" I said to Pyrrha. "I loved that cereal, even if it was generally too sweet!"

"Yeah, it was pretty cool" she said.

"Anyway, I need to get my armor on" I said as I turned from the two girls towards my goal for the past couple of minutes. "I'll ah, see you guys later... I guess"

"Bye Jaune!" I heard Pyrrha called out.

Weiss didn't seem to want to deign me with a goodbye.

Whatever.

It was just when I was putting on my breastplate and arm braces when an announcement was made over the intercom: _"Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."_

Okay, final check it see if everything was here: Sword and Shield? Check. Armor? Check. Um, was there anything else?

Looked like everything was in order. I closed my locker, turned around to find Yang and Ruby facing me.

"Hi, I'm Yang" she said as she stood before me, hip cocked to the side as she looked me up and down. "So you're the lady-killer my little gem of a sister, Ruby, became friends with" Yang said with a grin plastered on her face. "Get it? Gem? Ruby?" she began laughing at her own joke, hands wrapped around her stomach.

Neither Ruby or I laughed; I didn't know exactly what to do in this scenario, and Ruby just groaned out loud and placed her face into the palm of her hand.

Wait, these two were sisters? They have completely different names. Maybe one of them's adopted. Not going prying though.

"Stop laughing, Yang!" Ruby said as yang continued to laugh, elbowing her sister several times, but Yang kept on laughing. "It wasn't even funny!"

The two of them began to argue again, so I took this as my cue to leave, I also didn't want to be late for initiation, whatever it was.

"Wait, hold on, Jaune!" I heard someone cry, I turned around to see Ruby rushing to catch up to me.

"Wait for me guys!" I saw Yang stop laughing and began making her way as well.

**(Scene Break)**

The three of us made it outside to what looked like the side of a sheer cliff, arrayed at the very edge of it were these metal plates on the ground were each student was standing on one.

In front of the students were Headmaster Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch.

We rushed to each claim our own, and when we did, Headmaster Ozpin began speaking again: "For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest"

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of 'teams'. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... **today**" Professor Goodwitch continued.

"Ughhh!" from the corner of my eye, I could see Ruby groaning. I guess she didn't like having a partner.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well" Ozpin continued as if he hadn't heard Ruby.

Ruby groaned again, even louder this time. She really didn't want teammates!

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years!" Ozpin said behind his mug.

It took me a moment to understand what he had said; he spoke of the importance of suitable teammates, and then arbitrarily decides whomever you meet eye to eye first is your partner.

That's weird. But at least I didn't take it as hard as Ruby; she actually cried out: "**WHAT!**" she also looked completely devastated as well.

Something was said further down the line of initiates, but I couldn't make it out.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you **will** die" Ozpin went on.

I swallowed from my suddenly dry mouth.

This was it.

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" he asked, finished with his speech.

Wait, how were we getting into the forest in the first place, were we climbing down or something or... The tiles!

I looked down at the metal tile I was standing on; _Observe_. Instantly, a window appeared with information of the thing underneath me:

**Item: Metal Spring loaded Catapult**

**Description: Used to fire objects several hundred meters in distance**

OH SHIIIIIIIIII-

And suddenly, I was flying through the air.

I was completely caught by surprise, so my aims were left to flay behind my back from the wind pressure, I couldn't see out of my right eye and barely out of my left one.

All in all, I was left at the mercy of Monty to not die from hitting the ground.

My left eye just barely made out a new window popping up:

**Two Quests Given!**

**Find a Relic**

**Find a Partner**

I couldn't really accept the quests at this time, so I ignored the windows for now.

It also looks like I was finally reaching the apex of my flight. Because the wind wasn't squishing my face flat, and I could actually hear the sounds of gunfire.

As I began my descent, I realized that I was still the only student left in the air. Where did everyone else go?

There was sudden tingling in my head, and before I had even realized it, my head and shoulders were twisting in the air. Just in time too, because a red blur flew past where my head at been seconds earlier.

What in the name of Oum was that!?

A windows appeared that I was barely able to read: **Danger Sense Increased by 1 Level!**

I'm already being attacked?! Where did it come from!?

I was still in the air when another windowed appeared:

**Secondary Quest Given!**

**Land while only losing less than 10% HP**

Well that doesn't sound hard at all...

I pulled out _Crocea Mors _and _Crocea Armun_. I didn't really know where to put my sword as I braced myself with my shield in front of my body.

Maybe I could use it as an anchor... I hope.

Those trees are pretty big. The closer I got to them, the more space they filled up in my field of vision.

This was going to hurt.

I hit the tree so hard I rebounded off of it, even my head crashed into the inside of my shield, but luckily, I was able stab my sword into the trunk. I felt the force of the crash travel up both arms, the arm holding the shield was completely numb and hung limp at my side. The same went for the arm holding _Crocea Mors._

A window appeared:

**Physical Endurance Increased by 1 Level!**

Well that's okay I guess, taking deep breaths. I ended up leaning against the tree trunk head first. As the pain and numbness disappeared.

When feeling finally returned to my body, another window appeared:

**Secondary Quest Failed!**

Oh? I took a look to the top left hand corner of my field of vision and saw that I had lost 60HP, leaving me at exactly 500HP left.

That's a shame. Regen-ing that is going to take a while, especially at 1HP per 10 minutes.

Now how to get down from here? I looked down to see nothing of the actual ground, just a sea of branches and leaves.

I pulled _Crocea Mors_ from the tree trunk and placed the two items back onto my right hip.

I began to slowly climb down the massive tree.

* * *

I eventually made it to the bottom of the tree and touched solid ground once more. I jumped down from the last branch and dusted myself off from stray twigs and whatnot.

I saw that my HP had regenerated slightly, and by slightly, I mean by two points.

Now which way was north? I need to get a relic, and probably find a partner along the way.

Suddenly, I heard growling.

Loud growling that sounded nearby.

I pulled out my sword and shield, and tried to see into the forest around me; the trees around me were tall and wide, so alot of the sunlight was blocked from filtering down, making vision a tricky problem where I currently was.

And suddenly, the tingling in my head made me turn to the left, where a pair of glowing red eyes looked back at me. I crouched as I prepared for my very first fight, my palms sweating up an ocean.

I waited as the creature entered the small clearing.

It was a bipedal monster, one of the Grimm. It stood slouching, with arms long enough to touch the ground, bony protrusions sticking out of the forearms, hands at ended in bone tips as well, and a head of the same bone materiel with red lines and glowing red eyes. I could jsut make out bone spikes sticking out if its back as well.

**[GRIMM]**

**Beowolf Lv. 17**

I licked suddenly dry lips; this monster was higher leveled than me, much higher. But it was still a monster regardless, supposedly, a player character _should_ be able to take on monsters higher leveled than oneself. To an extent that is.

_Should_ also being the key word. No matter how many times I see my life as an RPG, there were still some things I've yet to check or prove are wholly accurate.

This is one of those things.

The beowolf gave a howl, and then lunged at me.

It was fast!

I threw myself to the left, coming back up from a roll as the beowolf barreled passed me and struck one of the trees, causing said tree to shake from the force.

This was my chance!

"AH!" With a cry that sounded more confident than I really was, I stepped forward and slashed at the exposed back of the beowolf, _Crocea Mors_ cutting cleanly into the dark hide of the Grimm, red sticky ichor began to pool out from the cut, staining the ground we fought on.

The beowolf gave a roar of pain as some of its HP bar disappeared and swiped at me with its claws.

I raised my shield to block, but even so, the attack pushed me back several feet, I felt the jarring impact of the attack all the way up my arm.

The beowolf leaped at me again, but I wasn't fast enough to dodge it this time.

The beowolf hit me like a dust-train and I landed sprawled on my back on the ground.

I groaned as some of my HP bar disappeared this time.

I saw the beowolf in the air again, I brought my shield up just in time to block a powerful overhead swipe of its claws as it landed on top of me, crushing the air out of my lungs.

I ducked my head and scrunched up my body as the beowolf began raining down blows upon my shield.

The attacks suddenly stopped and I felt something begin to tug against my shield.

It was trying to pry it from me!

It succeeded in revealing my face to it, and I had an up close and personal look at the monster.

It wasn't pretty, and its breath had the stench of road kill on it.

It reared back its head for a bite, and struck!

I twisted my head away and the beowolf struck its bony face into the ground. Dust entered my left eye, but I didn't need it to swing a sword.

I struck back by stabbing _Crocea Mors_ into the beowolf's midsection.

It gave another roar as it began to flay around on top of me, my shield protected me as a felt the strikes rain down on it, but they were slowing down, and getting weaker.

The beowolf continued flailing on top of me, causing _Crocea _Mors to dig even deeper in its body. It finally released my shield and I was able to attack with _Crocea Armun _now, smacking the beowolf in the face with my shield, once, and then a second time, the second hit propelling it -and myself- to the left.

This time, it was me on top as the roll had trapped the beowolf's right arm underneath its own body. I was just able to straddle over the monster's midsection.

I pulled my sword from the side of the beowolf's stomach with a wet _SQUELCH!_. I blocked the last feeble swipe from its right arm, grasped _Crocea Mors_ in both hands and stabbed down into the beowolf's chest, burying it to the hilt.

It's final roar died in its throat and came out as a whine as the light faded from its red eyes.

I was left to collapsed on its chest as I took a couple of deep breaths before the adrenaline faded away and I began to laugh.

I looked completely crazy laughing on top of a dead beowolf -leaning on the hilt of my still buried sword- but I didn't care; I HAD DONE IT!.

I'm alive! The monster's dead! Th-

Whoa!

I slipped forward as the body of the Grimm began to dissipate and I lost balance.

I landed in a heap on the ground as all trace of the monster dissipated like dust in the wind.

I stood up from the ground and laughed again as several of windows appeared;

Two of them were: **Block Increased by 1 level!**

Two were: **Armor Increased by 1 level!**

One was: **Sword Mastery Increased by 1 level!**

Another was: **Physical Endurance Increased by 1 level!**

And the last one happened to be a new skill:

**New Skill Learned: Shield Bash Lv. 1**

**Type: Active**

**Current: Consumes 10 Stamina. Deals 20 Damage, but may stun the target for 1 second.**

**Description: Hitting your opponent really hard with your shield.**

There was also something glinting on the ground in front of me, kneeling down, I realized that it was a couple of coins, about 5 Lien worth, and beside it was what looked like one of the bony protrusions from the arm of the beowolf.

Mob drops... Honest to Monty mob drops.

Whatever, I don't care, nothing can surprise me anymore.

I placed my thoughts to the back of my mind as I picked up the money and beowolf bone. Now what was I supposed to do with it?

I slipped it into a pocket and picked up my sword again. Once more, a window appeared. It was the information page pertaining to _Crocea Mors_ but there was something different about it this time:

**Ability Unlocked: Grimslayer!**

**Item: **_**Crocea Mors **_**(Legendary)**

**Damage: 200**

**Durability: Impeccable **

**Ability: Grimm Bane: +20 Damage per hit against Grimm & Ignores 10 DR of Grimm.**

******Type: Passive**

**Description:**_** Crocea Mors**_** has been wielded against the forces of Grimm for generations, its blade has ended the existence of thousands of Grimm.**

**?:?**

**?:?**

**Item Description: Arc Family heirloom. **

Well that's cool. I got bonus damage now against the Grimm.

Then I heard some rustling from the grass behind me. I quickly turned around, and prepared for another fight, though, with only 350 HP left and about 72 Stamina, I might not be able to put up much of one.

"Jaune, is that you?" I heard someone call out as the rustling got closer.

I relaxed, placing sword and shield away.

"Over here!" I called back.

A second later, Pyrrha entered the clearing, she wielded a javelin and a circular shield around the same size as my _Crocea Armun_.

I got a new pop-up:

**Quest Completed!**

**Partner Found!**

**+500 exp!**

That's alot of experience points, good, I should be able to level up soon.

Another window appeared: **Party Created!** I saw a little picture of Pyrrha's head and then a health bar next to it appear underneath my own: **Exp. Share now in effect.** Now that sounded good!

Eventually she stood before me and collapsed her javelin, slinging both javelin and shield onto her back.

"I guess this makes us partners, Jaune" she said, extending her hand.

"I guess so" I answered as we shook hands.

A weird thought came to me: "Were you looking specifically for me as a partner?" I asked after the shake.

"No" she answered as she turned away to peer into the forest. "Of course not"

"Alright then" I said as I joined her in scrutinizing our surroundings. "Are you expecting something?"

"Wha-What?" she blurted out, turning back to me. "What makes you say that?"

"Aren't you looking out for danger?" I asked. If she wasn't doing that, than _what _was she doing?

"No" she answered, shaking her slightly pink face. "I don't think w-!"

The two of us whirled around; that was the unmistakable sound of a beowolf howling. Which was followed by a second howl added to the first, and then a third, and a fourth, and a fifth.

They also sounded closer and closer each howl.

We instantly grabbed our weapons and stood waiting; Pyrrha entered a stance where she stood one foot in front of the other with her shield in front of her and her javelin poking out from above.

I just shifted my body slightly sideways for a leaner profile and held my sword and shield before me.

Bursting from the same direction as Pyrrha had arrived from came six beowolves, followed by a single larger, and more armored one that stood almost twice as tall as the other beowolves.

**[GRIMM]**

**Alpha Beowolf Lv. 25**

The Alpha gave a roar and all seven of them charged us; two went for me, and the alpha and the other four attacked Pyrrha instantly separating us.

This was bad, very bad.

I held out against one, but I took a fair bit of damage too, I don't think I could kill both beowolves without dying myself.

I backed up, I couldn't let them surround me, I tried to keep an eye on both of them, but it was hard.

As one, the two of them lunged at me.

I aimed for the one on the right, moving as I did so; I had only one chance to get this right or I was dead.

Time seemed to slow as the lunging beowolves got closer and closer.

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

Wait for- NOW!

The two of them had leapt claws first, the one on the left wasn't going to hit me, so I moved around the right one's path and struck out with my shield, hitting the beowolf and sending it crashing into its partner.

The two of them crashed to the forest floor, the one I had hit had a grey swirl over its head.

It was stunned, now was my chance!

I lunged forward myself and buried _Crocea Mors_ into its exposed throat. The words "**Critical Strike!**' appeared above the beowolf's head as its HP bar depleted to 0.

I had no time to gloat as I was struck so hard I flew across the clearing and into a tree, flecks of red spotted my shield and armor.

That's blood!

A new message appeared:

**Bleeding Debuff Activated!**

**-10HP per minute**

Well, that's _really _not good.

I prepared to stand up again with my sword as I leant against the tree trunk, but then a realized I wasn't holding it anymore, neither was my shield at hand for that matter.

My eyes and hand scrambled around to locate the sword, and I saw it laying several feet away to my right.

The shield several feet to the left.

I heard another roar, and without looking, knew the beowolf was charging me.

I had to chose!

Sword or shield?

Sword?

Shield?

... Sword!

I scrambled towards my sword and hastily picked it up and held it with both hands in front of me.

Just in time to have to roll away as the beowolf took a swipe at me.

I got back up and faced off against the beowolf again, the bleeding from my head was getting into my left eye, causing me to close it.

This time, the beowolf prowled forward on all four limbs, moving around. I followed it, keeping it directly and slightly to my right for full vision of it.

It bared its fangs at me and growled. I grimaced in return at it and broke into a dead sprint at the Grimm. sword poised over my right shoulder for a power strike.

The head on charge seemed to catch it off guard for a second. I saw it bunch up its hind legs and lunge at me, its two forearms extended to tear me to shreds.

Suddenly, something collided in midair with the beowolf, throwing it to the right of my charge. I only a second to see, but the thing that struck the beowolf, of all things, was Pyrrha's shield. And the shield just cut the beowolf in half before I watched as it flew through the air back to its owner.

"Are you okay, Jaune?" I heard her concerned question.

"Yeah, Yeah, I'm good" I breath out as my body relaxed, I looked over to where Pyrrha had been fighting.

What I saw was a slaughter surrounding Pyrrha, but not a single drop of blood, or blemish, or even hair out of line on Pyrrha as she grabbed her shield out of the air.

The beowolves had been completely decimated, their bodies surrounded Pyrrha, but all of them were left in almost unrecognizable messes.

That's scary.

Pyrrha suddenly appeared in front of me, I would have jumped in shock were it not for the fact that she now held my head between her hands as quite a few windows popped up behind her head, though, from how close we were, it was impossible to see what they said.

"You're bleeding, Jaune" she noted, her eyes narrowing as she scrutinized my face.

"It looks worse than it actually is" I dismissed her worries. Though, if I don't stop it, I might eventually die from blood loss.

"Why don't you activate your Aura?" she asked as she stepped back.

"Pardon?" I asked tilting my head slightly. "Aura? What's Aura?"

"You don't know what Aura is, Jaune?" she asked, giving me an incredulous look.

"Not at all" I answered. "Should I?"

"It doesn't matter" she said before facing me again and took my hand in both of her. "Aura is the manifestation of our soul. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt you were being watched without knowing that someone was there?"

"Yeah actually" I said as I scratched my head with my other hand. "In fact, I felt it last night for an hour or two"

"Y-Yes..." she said as her cheeks reddened slightly for some reason. "Anyway, with practice, our Aura can be our shield. Everyone has it, even animals. By baring your soul outward as a force, you can deflect harm. All of our tools and equipment are conduits for Aura. You protect yourself and your soul when fighting."

So this Aura was another energy source, that's useful, especially if I can use it to empower my attacks and bolster my defense like Pyrrha said I could.

I blinked as Pyrrha steeped even closer to me and placed a hand on my cheek, her other hand still holding mine: "Now, close your eyes and concentrate"

I complied with what she said. I stood there for a moment, feeling nothing special. "Pyrrh-!"

It felt like energy was coursing through my body, a supernova of power funneled into my chest. I gasped as everything tingled... in a good way.

I opened my eyes to see myself glowing white, like there was a white outline over my entire body.

I looked to Pyrrha and saw her slumped on the ground: Pyrrha, are you alright?"

"I'm fine" she said as she stood back up, dusting herself off. " I used my Aura to unlock yours, and it appears you have a large Aura, I used more than I thought I would"

"Wow" I said as the orchestra winded down and the glowing faded away.

I looked up as two windows appeared in front of all the other ones I had yet to acknowledge:

**Aura Unlocked!**

**500/5000**

A second message appeared after it:

**New Skill Learned: Aura Healing**

**Type: Passive**

**Current: Consumes 50 Aura to heal 100HP until fully healed, or Aura reaches 1 unit.**

**Description: Those with either large Aura stores, or specifically trained, are able to heal themselves from wounds at the cost of their Aura.**

And another one was telling me the Debuff had ended: **Bleeding Debuff No Longer Active**

I looked through the other messages that I had received earlier:

There was one telling me: **Physical Endurance Skill Increased by 1 Level!**

Two were: **Shield Bash Skill Increased by 1 Level!**

One was: **Block Skill Increased by 1 Level!**

And surprisingly enough, the last two were: **Your Level Has Increased by 1!**

I'll allocate my points when we're in a more secure area.

I looked to Pyrrha, there was something bothering me: "How do I activate my Aura?" I asked.

She smiled benignly at me before answering: "Practice"

"Practicing what though?" I asked. I need to start training with this power as soon as possible.

"Reaching your inner self" she answered with another smile.

"Right" I said as I went to pick up my shield. We'll save this talk for another day.

"Do you have any idea where the Forest Temple is?" I asked as we began walking.

I wish I had Quest markers, that would be very useful.

I had a little laugh at what if there was such a thing as the 'Settings' function.

I stared, stopped in my tracks -causing Pyrrha to bump into me- by what had appeared in a grey window before me.

It was the 'OPTIONS' page, complete with Video, Audio, Gameplay, and Controls settings.

"Jaune are you alright!?" I distantly heard Pyrrha say to me. I also distantly noticed that I was no longer standing, and was on sitting on my knees on the floor.

"Yeah, everything is A-Okay" I said weakly. "Just... Just give me a minute..."

"Is something wrong, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, kneeling down as well. "I'm your partner, I'm here to help"

"No, it's nothing" I waved off her concern. "I- I'm good, I'm good. I just needed a moment"

And I felt alot better instantly after my moment. Standing up, Pyrrha gave me another concerned look, but said nothing as the two of us continued on our search for the Temple and the relic there.

* * *

The two of us said little as we walked, I was too busy trying to stealthily access my 'OPTIONS' menu without Pyrrha seeing and asking why my hand was currently tapping at the empty air.

Eventually, after much walking and finger twitching, I was able to check out more or less all of my 'options' so to speak.

There was the general stuff regarding video quality, screen width, subtitles, graphics, difficulty, volume, movement controls, etc.

And yes, I checked, and to my eternal shame, the difficulty setting is **EASY**.

I did end up finding a checkbox for Quest Markers. once I did that, a little arrow appeared in front of me pointing in a direction which I would assume be towards the relic.

Pyrrha seemed content to follow my lead for some reason as I followed the floating arrow in front of me.

"Wait" Pyrrha called out. "Do you smell that?"

We stopped as I raised my nose into the air and took a deep sniff.

"No... I don't-" I began until I smelt it, faintly in the air. "Is something burning?"

The two of us shared a look before we made our way at a steady trot. The smell of something burning growing thicker and thicker until we even began to see smoke in the air.

The two of us eventually got near enough to hear and see the conflagration.

We stood at the outskirts of the flames, even from so far out, I could feel the heat.

Now how are we going to get to the relic?

* * *

**Well, Another chapter out. Jaun has his partner, but who actually doubt that it wouldn't be Pyrrha?**

**Ten points to the one who know how the beowolves showed up!**

**I wrote this really fast. I hope I can keep this up, one of my main problems in my writing is my ability to keep up momentum, and I will probably spend alot of time creating new scenarios and events to occur for the story as it progresses. **

**I even have an idea for crazy events that may or may not actually happen in the story!**

**I also have a character sheet written out for Jaune, should I post that?**

**Anyway, have a nice day,**

**Desodus**


	4. Chapter 4

**Howdy all, here be the next chapter. This thing here went through 3 re-writes before I decided the current version was worth posting.**

**Disclaimer: I sadly do not own any intellectual property here. **

* * *

**Chapter 3: It Only Gets Harder From Here**

So, the relic was on the other side of a raging forest fire.

That sucks.

"So how do we get around that?" I asked as we stood watching the forest burn.

"Simple" Pyrrha said as she unsheathed her javelin, but now it looked like a sword. "We do this" she said as her weapon glowed red along the blade before she slashed at the nearest tree in front of us.

Her attack easily cut through the trunk of the tree, causing it to topple forward.

And the tree behind it.

And the next.

And the next.

An entire column of trees had been cut down.

Pyrrha then moved over and did the same with another column of trees. She did this two more times before an entire highway of trees had been cut down. "Let's go!" She said as she began dashing across her impromptu road.

I followed as fast as I could, the road of toppled trees just seemed to go on and on.

All the while, I could feel the heat of the fire licking at my feet.

Eventually, we had gone far enough that the fire was no longer even visible from where we were, exactly where we were though, is another matter altogether as we had traveled to the right of the objective.

"Let's keep going" Pyrrha said and I moved to take the lead towards the relic once more.

"Okay- Ow!" I cried, feeling a sharp stabbing pain on my hand. Looking down, I saw that it was a spider.

I shook my hand and the spider was dislodged, disappearing into the grass.

While looking down, I noticed something weird; there were dozens upon dozens of spiders speeding across the grass, passing over my shoe in the direction of which we came from.

"Pyrrha, do you see this?" I asked, crouching down to get a better look at the spiders.

I waited for a reply, but none came.

I looked up from the spiders to see Pyrrha currently had her shield out and covering her head and upper body.

I looked around, were we about to be attacked?

"What's wrong, Pyrrha?" I asked after several seconds of nothing happening, but Pyrrha remained behind her shield.

"Sp-Sp-Spiders!" I heard her say from behind her shield. "I ha-hate spiders!"

Okay... Well, I didn't expect _that_ of all things.

"Um, well, I guess we could just move on now. Let's go then, Pyrrha" I said as I stood up began walking away from the spiders. "Come on"

I didn't get a response from Pyrrha, but she began to walk as well, staying a couple of steps in front of me, but after a minute or so, her shield returned to its place on her back as the tension in her shoulders visibly relaxed.

"Sorry about that, Jaune" she said as she turned to look at me, her face tinged with red.

"It's okay, Pyrrha" I answered. "Everyone's got some kind of fear"

"I know" she said with a sigh. "But... its just really embarrassing"

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm afraid of clowns" I said, gesturing at myself to Pyrrha. "They're just too happy. There must be something going on, especially when they can fit so many people into such a small car, that's not natural"

Pyrrha gave me a small smile before punching me in the arm. I nearly toppled over from it, but we continued walking.

As we walked, I couldn't keep out the thought of the spiders and their weird movement patterns: Just where were they all going to, and in such orderly fashion, it was unnerving.

I whipped my head around, looking the way we came as a tingling alerted me to danger. My eyes scanning the forest until I barely saw them.

They flitted in between trees, swift and almost silent in their movement. Until one of them stopped and stared back at me, all eight of its glowing red eyes burning brightly in the darkness of the tree cover.

**[GRIMM]**

**Theraphosidae Lv. 15**

A single one of them I could take -maybe two if I was lucky- but from what I saw, there were more of them... much more.

"Pyrrha?" I said softly, not taking my eyes off the Grimm, moving backwards now.

"Yes, Jaune?" she answered, looking over at me and frowning.

"RUN!" I cried as I spun around, grabbed her hand and began sprinting like I was competing in the Remnant Olympic 100 meter dash, dragging along Pyrrha for the ride.

"Wha- OH DUST!" she cried as she probably saw what was behind us.

The forest became a cacophony of chittering as more and more of them burst from the trees and began to give chase.

A tingling alarm told me to duck, and I did, just as one of them jumped from somewhere on the left, fangs and body passing through where my head had been seconds before.

And then suddenly, it was no longer I pulling Pyrrha along, but the other way around as Pyrrha began picking up more and more speed until I was just barely able to run upright as Pyrrha held my hand in a deathgrip.

We made it out of the Emerald Forest and into what looked like some ruins, still running, when suddenly, I was bowled over, My connection with Pyrrha disappeared under a hail of hairy limbs and chittering fangs as one of them landed on my back.

The theraphosidae and I rolled a bit before I ended up on top of it; its eight hairy limbs poking me and trying to lift me off of it.

It bared its fangs at me and hissed; I saw spittle fly from its mouth as yellow viscous liquids dripped from its fangs.

It lunged up at me, causing me to lose my balance and rolled off of it. The Grimm easily flipped itself back upright and jumped at me again.

I dived underneath its flailing limbs and fangs and rolled back to a standing position, drawing _Crocea Mors_ as I did so before turning back to face the Grimm.

I prepared to rotate around, but when I moved, my left foot did not seem to respond properly, and I landed facedown where I had been standing as I tripped.

I looked over my shoulder to see my foot stuck to a string of webbing on the forest floor. Looking up, I saw the Grim skittering rapidly towards me. I raised my sword in ready for what was about to come next.

It jumped and landed on my chest, right onto my sword as well, I might add.

It hissed futilely at me as it shook on my blade, impaling itself even further as it hissed and chittered at me -I could even see it over the Grimm's shoulder- _Crocea Mors _pierced right through the bulbous end section.

It hissed one more time at me before slumping forward, its head brushing against my own as it died.

With a grunt, I threw the carcass off of me and stood up, prepared to continue fighting before I noticed that there was nothing there _to_ fight, in fact, I was standing alone before the forest, not even Pyrrha was around me.

Looking around, I saw Pyrrha further in the clearing with her rifle out pointed in my general direction, standing beside two other girls, both with their weapons out as well, and to the right was another couple farther off beside one of the quest marked relics. I turned back to the forest and watched warily before slowly backing away -almost tripping again before cutting the webbing off of my foot- careful to not show my back to the forest.

I could see them just almost out of sight, their glowing red eyes watched me in return, though not more of them wanted to venture out of the forest for some reason.

I kept backing until I bumped into something, turning around, I realized I had just collided with Yang, Ruby's sister. The other girl standing beside her, I had seen before, right after Ruby and Weiss had exploded just yesterday.

"Jaune, are you alright?" Pyrrha asked me, looking at the ground and shuffling her feet.

"Never better" I said as I small smile. She must have seen it, because she turned away from me.

"Sorry, Jaune" I heard her whisper, still not looking at me.

"There's nothing to be sorry about" I said. "I said it earlier; we've all got some kind of fear"

She turned to face me now, A look of stricken shame on her face. "But I left you alone! You could of died!" she said as she grabbed me by the front of my hoodie. I could visibly make out tears beginning to form. "I-I f-f-failed as your pa-partner!"

"Listen" I said trying to stop the tears before they began to fall. "We were both running, I just got caught" I gestured back at where I had fought the Grimm. "And look, I'm all right, not dead, everything's fine"

"But how can I be your partner now!?" she cried, looking at me fearfully. "Partner's don't abandon each other to fight Grimm alone! I'm not worthy to be your partner now..." she released my as she slumped forward in shame.

This was starting to get out of hand: "Okay, Pyrrha" I said as I laid both hands on her shoulders. "If anyone's not worthy of being partners, it's me" I raised a hand to stop her from speaking. "You're definitely the strongest student of our year, you're athletic, you're a celebrity, and you're also very beautiful. Weiss was right earlier; you are the perfect partner that anyone could have wished for. When we met in the forest, I was more than shocked when we became partners"

Pyrrha's face had gone steadily more and more red as I spoke, her face almost matched her hair in shade of red.

"Do you... really think I'm beautiful?" she asked as her hands came up to cover her face.

This seemed like a really odd part of what I said to latch onto, but I nodded my head anyway in confirmation.

"I'm ah, I'm going to get us a relic!" Pyrrha said as she sped off to the pedestals.

Well, at least she's not crying. "OOF!" I grunted as something collided into my side.

"Nice work, lady-killer" Yang said as she draped an arm around my shoulders.

"What are you-?" I began before being interrupted.

"Look out below!" someone cried.

I had no time to react as Yang's presence disappeared from my side and I suddenly found myself -as the air was driven out of my lungs- on the ground... again. this time, though, there was a sharp pain and weight on my back.

"My hero, Jaune!" I heard a familiar voice say.

"My back!" I groaned out, having difficulty breathing in this position as I ate dirt.

"Oh, sorry Jaune!" I heard as the weight on me disappeared and I was able to stand up and spit out the dirt in my mouth. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just a little sore" I answered Ruby, stretching out my back as the pain disappeared. "Are you alright?" I asked in turn.

"Yep!" she answered with a nod. "You ah, kind of cushioned our fall..." At that moment, I realized that Weiss was standing next to Ruby, glaring at her.

I turned back to where I could feel the theraphosidaes were hiding, just out of sight, but still there in the tree line. The tingling in my head was turning into a headache: **Danger Sense Skill Increased to Level 13!**

That doesn't sound good...

"Take cover!" someone yelled. Following that was a loud **"CAW! CAW!" **from above.

"You dunce of a red!" I heard Weiss hiss. "I told you not to hitch a ride on it!"

Looking up, my mouth fell open at the sight of a hovering Grimm:

**[EPIC GRIMM]**

**Nevermore Lv. 67**

The Nevermore gave another loud "**CAW"** before it gave a huge flap of its wings and fired feathers down on us.

I looked around, there _was_ no cover near me.

"Jaune!" I heard, turning to see Pyrrha rushing back to me. "I got you!" she cried as she tackled me to the ground and crouched over my prone form.

I heard the 'ping' sound of something repeatedly striking metal for a few seconds, and Pyrrha grunting from effort of holding her shield against the onslaught of missiles.

And then the sound stopped and Pyrrha released me as she stood up.

I stood up and saw myself and Pyrrha in a field of feathers sticking out of the ground, each feather was about twice of my one height.

"I guess that makes us even then" I said to Pyrrha as her face turned slightly red again.

"I guess it does..." she answered, a slight frown marring her face.

"The little birdie is circling back!" I saw Yang yell from behind a nearby pillar.

"We need to move!" A new voice said. "Now!"

With a start, I realized where I had seen him and girl beside him before - he was the guy being dragged away while his friend talked about pancakes:

**[The Martial Artist]**

**Lie Ren Lv. 27**

And the girl that has been with him since yesterday:

**[The Valkyrie] **

**Nora Valkyrie Lv. 29**

"Look, Ruby and I are the only ones without a relic, so let us get one and we leave without dilly-dallying" Another person entered the conversation. Weiss gestured Ruby and then to the relics.

I turned back to where the theraphosidaes were hiding, something was seriously going on now; they had had a perfect chance to attack when the Nevermore fired its feathers down at us. Maybe they don't like stepping out of the forest?

"Pyrrha!" I called over my shoulder. "You got us a relic!?" I looked to see her nod at me as the tingling in my head got worse and worse. I turned to the rest of the people here. "We should go... Now!"

"Right" Ruby said as she took the lead as Weiss went to get their relic. "Let's go!"

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble.

"What's happening?" I heard -I think it was Blake ask.

The tingling in my head spiked as I turned back to the forest. There was a much more visible indicator of danger this time; it was the fact that the trees from where Pyrrha and I had come from were shaking and quivering.

"Time we left!" said the only other guy here. Just as something large burst through the trees, and I mean literally; trees went flying in every direction as the monstrosity entered the light.

I guess I know what the theraphosidaes were waiting for:

**[EPIC GRIMM]**

**Acromantula Lv. 50**

"AH!" Pyrrha's high-pitched scream broke through the air as she clung to my arm as the Grimm began pouring into the clearing.

"Go! Go! Go! Go!" I cried, urging everyone in front of me as we all broke out into dead sprints towards the cliffs, I half carrying, half dragging Pyrrha as we ran.

* * *

We made it to the cliffs, but there was one single problem: the Nevermore was waiting for us, perched on top of one of the ruins.

We had no option but to keep running forward as the theraphosidaes got closer and closer.

"Ruby!" I heard Yang call out. "Cover us!"

"Yep!" Ruby said as she chambered a round and began firing at the Nevermore.

"Nora, distract them!" Ren said, pointing to the Acromantula and its lessers.

"Hehehe!" Nora laughed as she pulled a grenade launcher of all things from her back and began firing at the following spider Grimm. "The itsy-bitsy spider went flying!"

I had a glimpse as several of the theraphosidaes did in fact go flying as the grenades detonated on or around them. But the Acromantula did not seemed phased as it continued skittering towards us, fangs the size of men glistened with deadly poison.

"Across the bridge, hurry!" Ruby called as she slowly made her way forward, all the while shooting at the Nevermore flapping above us.

"GO!" Pyrrha yelled to me. "I'll-I'll help cover" she said as -to my complete shock- she gave me a crooked smile before turning around and her javelin turned into a rifle as she began firing at the theraphosidaes as well.

We rushed to the bridge, all the while, chased by the eight-legged Grimm.

"Let's go, Nora!" I heard behind me.

I turned to look behind back at the Grimm behind us, but something much more pressing caught my eye: the Nevermore was flying straight at the bridge we were currently on.

I watched as the world slowed down as the Nevermore plowed into the supports holding the bridge up, right in front of where I was running, I might add.

For what looked like the third time today, I felt the sensation of weightlessness as the part of the bridge I was on fell into an abyss. And I began to fall with it.

I flung my arms out for something to hold on to, and miraculously, I was able to grab onto the ledge of the now destroyed bridge.

I hung on for dear life as I swung back and forth above the abyss.

"Jaune!" I heard a cry somewhere above me. I craned my neck to see Ruby pointing at me from across the other half of the bridge. "Hang in there!"

"Ha! Nice one, Rubes!" I saw Yang give Ruby a thumbs up before jumping onto a stone pillar and began firing at the Nevermore, ignoring the glare Ruby sent her way.

"I'm okay!" I yelled to Ruby, drawing her attention back to me.

To demonstrate, I began to pull myself up. Though, it was really difficult for me to get the rest of my body back onto the bridge... It's really hard to climb in jeans.

Things took a turn for the worse when a message appeared:

**Stamina Depleted!**

Uh oh.

With that said, I began to lose strength in my arms and fingers.

"Jaune!" I heard two different people yell.

"PYRRHA!" I shouted as my fingers failed me and I began falling again.

And suddenly, I wasn't falling anymore, looking up I could see Pyrrha looking down at me with a frown of concentration on her face as she held onto my forearm.

"I've got you!" she said and with a single tug, she yanked me back onto the bridge. I landed sprawl on the stone as I tried to regain my breath and waited for Stamina to replenish.

I finally got up and had a good look at the situation; Ren, Nora, Pyrrha and I were stuck on one side of the bridge, while Ruby, Yang, Weiss and Blake were on the other.

Ruby and the others were dealing with the Nevermore, while we had our hands full with the Acromantula and theraphosidaes.

Nora was currently firing suppression for us with her grenade launcher easily blowing anything getting near, with Pyrrha and Ren joining in, through their firearms seemed much less effective.

We need a plan._ Observe_.

**Acromantula Lv. 50**

**HP: 2700(2500) Stamina: 500**

**The Acromantula is the father of a brood, a Grimm having survived for hundreds of years, growing in size and strength as time went on. The poison of its fangs has been known to kill men in seconds, if the bite didn't kill you first that is. The Acromantula is lightly armored, the joints of its legs are extremely vulnerable. The Acromantula and ****theraphosidaes**** generally rely on overwhelming opponents in raw numbers instead of strength.**

Okay, so there are some big weaknesses we could exploit after going through all of the theraphosidaes... problem is, there were dozens of them coming at us.

We stood in a kind of standoff; the Acromantula and theraphosidaes on the forest grass, while Pyrrha, Nora, Ren and I were trapped on the narrow bridge ledge.

The standoff lasted until the Acromantula gave a loud hiss as it rubbed its fangs together, causing the theraphosidaes gathered to hiss as well before they charged us en masse.

Well, they had to go through Nora and her hammer/grenade launcher first...

Nora continued to laugh as she fired her grenade launcher, blowing apart the theraphosidaes as they came at us, limbs and bodies flying everywhere as grenades struck the tightly packed Grimm.

"HOMERUN!" she cried as she changed into hammer form began smashing the oncoming theraphosidaes, sending many of them flying through the air and disappearing over the treetops.

That is not to say the rest of us were not active; Pyrrha had seemed to have placed her fears to the side as she and Ren were firing Dust rounds into the horde.

I turned away from facing the Acromantula when the tingling in my head told me to, just in time to see a theraphosidae climb up from the edge of the broken bridge.

I quickly moved forward and stabbed it in the head, pulling my sword free, I watched as the body fell into the abyss, but that was not the only thing I saw: I saw theraphosidaes climbing up the remaining support pillars below us.

This was bad... "They're coming in from below!" I shouted as I kicked one just cresting the side of the bridge back down.

"This is bad" Ren noted as he reloaded his guns. "NORA!" he yelled. "Get us out of here!"

"You got it, Ren!" I heard as I saw Nora squished one of the theraphosidae into the ground with her hammer before firing her weapon and was sent flying into the air.

I twisted away as another one arrived onto the bridge and tried to bite my head off before I stabbed it quickly and kicked the carcass off of _Crocea Mors_. Just in time to turn around and block the lunging body of another theraphosidae with _Crocea Armun_ and throwing it back into the abyss.

"Pyrrha! Jaune!" Ren yelled. "Get ready!"

"For what!?" I yelled back.

I got my answer when Nora returned to Remnant and smashed into the end of the bridge we were standing on.

All four of us were sent flying as Nora used the bridge as a catapult to fling us to the other side of the abyss. I saw several of the theraphosidae jump into the air trying to catch us, but they only landed on the other pieces of the destroyed bridge in the air.

My eyes widened as they used those same pieces as platforms to continue jumping towards us. They didn't get far though as Pyrrha shot them out of the air before they got too close to us.

When us and the remains of the bridge crashed back to Remnant. I rolled for a bit before coming to a stop on my back, looking up at the sky.

I got up before taking a deep breath and letting it out in a whoosh.

I looked across the abyss to see the Acromantula and the theraphosidae stuck on the other side, I also checked over the side of the bridge to make sure there weren't any more theraphosidae sneaking up on us from below.

There weren't any.

I gave a cheer of relief; we were safe, there was no way- Oh sweet Monty up above...

The Acromantula hissed before it reared back and jumped, crossing the span of the abyss easily to crash into the ruins beside us, and brushing it off like nothing as it turned to regard us with its eight red eyes.

There was also the matter of the web trail leading back across the abyss, and we watched as the first theraphosidae began to make their way over.

Now that's really bad.

it got worse when the Acromantula swept a couple of its limbs across us, catching Ren and Pyrrha, and sending them tumbling over the side of the ruined bridge.

"Pyrrha!/Ren!" Nora and I cried at the same time.

"You'll pay for that!" I looked to Nora and saw that she was currently glowing pink. That must be her Aura.

Nora's face was marred with a scowl as she furrowed her eyebrows and then she disappeared.

Where in the-! "Whoa!" I breathed out as Nora appeared right in front of the Acromantula and began to smash at it with her hammer.

Her strikes were so powerful, I could visually see the dents she left in the bone plating of the head of the Acromantula. She was even using the recoil from her grenade launcher to increase the impact of her strikes!

"**NO. ONE. TOUCHES. MY. REN-REN!" **Nora cried as she punctuated each word with a strike of her hammer.

I watched as cracks began to appear on the bone plating that covered its head as Nora continued her assault, the Acromantula hissing in pain.

I moved to where Ren and Pyrrha had disappeared and looked over the side to see to my relief, the two of them hanging onto one of the support pillars with their weapons dug into the stone.

"Are you guys alright?" I called down to them.

"We're fine, Jaune!" Pyrrha answered. "Just help Nora!"

I nodded as I turned back to see Nora use her hammer to destroy one of the legs -another one already beyond ruined next to it- an audible snapping sound followed by a teeth chattering wail was heard when Nora's hammer bent the leg and the Acromantula hissed in pain.

I looked across to see the theraphosidae were about halfway here. I needed to stop them while the Acromantula was distracted.

I made a beeline towards the webbing stuck to the ruins as Nora seemed to be handling the Acrmantula.

I wasn't going to make it!

... I made it!

I jumped the last bit of distance with my sword over my head to come down on the silk webbing, severing it easily.

The impromptu crossing fell away, and so did the theraphosidae on it, one was just seconds from touching down on this side when I cut the bridge.

"AH!" I cried in pain as something struck me in the back, sending me flying to a stone pillar. I saw stars for a moment before my eyesight righted itself. But I felt myself being lifted into the air, looking down, I squirmed when I saw that the Acromantula had me in its two front legs, holding me up.

I looked over to see Nora just getting up from being thrown pretty far away.

I tried to lift my sword to slash at its eyes, but was unable from the angle. I kicked my feet, trying to hit something vital, and began to squirm even more as the Acromantula brought me closer and closer to its gaping mouth, one fang was missing, the jagged edge of it bleeding red ichor onto the ground.

From the corner of my eye, I saw something shiny spinning through the air.

I realized it was Pyrrha's shield when it cut through one of the limbs holding me up, causing the Acromantula to hiss in pain and to throw me up into the air.

I flailed my arms futilely as gravity took control and I fell back to Remnant. Though, instead of hitting the ground, I landed on the Acromantula's face.

There was a moment where the fighting paused as the Grimm and I just stared at each other for a second or two, the Acromantula's eyes almost went cross-eyed focusing on me. All eight of them.

Then they narrowed as it tried to shake me off. I stabbed down on one of its eyes and hung on for dear life as the Acromantula cried out in pain, the sound it made sent shivers down my spine and goosebumps to form.

"Nice work, Jaune!" I heard Nora say, and from the corner of my eye, I saw her approach the Acromantula and strike another one of its leg joints, causing the Grimm to teeter.

And me to fall off as the Acromantula finally bucked me off, flipping through the air as I did.

I landed in a heap on the ground for the umpteenth time with a loud groan. Looking up, I saw the Acromantula attempt to stand on only four good back legs.

"Jaune!" I heard. I looked up to see Pyrrha coming towards me and pulling me up. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah" I answered before turning to the injured Grimm. "We need to finish that thing off now!"

"I got just the thing!" Nora said excitedly as she suddenly appeared on my other side, almost causing Pyrrha and I to fall over. Nora pulled out a different, black canister and loaded it into her grenade launcher.

"Nora, that's not-?!" Ren began.

"It is!" Nora interrupted with glee, her eyes positively shining.

"Jaune! Pyrrha! We gotta get back!" Ren said as he tackled us to the ground.

"What!?" I said as I once more met the dirt, I looked up to see Ren on top of us, covering his ears and closing his eyes shut.

"I'M A' FIRIN' MAH LAZOR!" I heard Nora cry in glee as she fired her grenade launcher.

I watched as a thunderclap went off, and then a literal beam of pink Aura overshadowed everything as whatever Nora fired collided with the Acromantula, so bright that I had to look away for the most part.

When Nora had fired, the wind had even picked up and began to whip around us from the force of the shot as small twigs, rocks and leaves flew this way and that, even a couple pieces of stone flew around.

Eventually, the brightness came to an end and I was able to turn back to Nora to see...

Utter destruction. Where the Acromantula had once stood was now gone, along with the Acromantula, in fact, an entire chunk of the ground was missing as well, marked by a completely smooth, circular edge. It looked like the place was vaporized into dust.

I stood back up as two new windows appeared: **Player Level Has Increased to 14!**

The other one was: **Armor Mastery Increased to Level 19!**

That's great! three levels in a single day and a bunch of skills leveled up, this from what took used to take about a year to achieve on my own

I'll be average in no time!...

That sounded a lot worse than I thought it would...

Anyway, I collapsed my shield and reached for my sword... which was not where it was supposed to be. Oh, it was stuck in the Acromantula's eye the last time I checked...

But there's no Acromantula left... so where was _Crocea Mors_?

"Jaune?" Pyrrha asked as I dashed towards ledge. "What are you doing?"

"Not now, Pyrrha" I answered looking around for any sign of it. "I need to find my sword!"

"Jaune!" She called.

"Oh Dust, my mom is going to kill me!" I was so dead, more than dead. I scrambled around, looking first near the stone pillars, and then even over the ledge into the abyss for any sign of my sword.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha called again. "I got your sword!"

"Where is it!? Where is-!?" I stopped mid search as what Pyrrha just said finally filtered through me. "You do?"

"Yes, Jaune" she said with a smile. "Here"

As she pulled _Crocea Mors_ from behind her of all places and gave it to my waiting arms.

"How did you get this?" I asked, really bewildered, last time I checked, it was still stuck in the Acromantula's eye.

"Oh it flew by when Nora blew up the Grimm" she answered with a smile.

"Oh, thanks, Pyrrha!" I said as I placed _Crocea Mors_ back into its partner. "This is the third time you've saved my life now"

"No problem, Jaune" Pyrrha said as the four of us turned back to face the cliffs to see Ruby killing the Nevermore.

"So... We're done, right?" I asked, scratching my head.

"I think- Jaune!" Pyrrha cried as I went flying once more.

I watched as I fell over the side of the bridge. I twisted around to see one last theraphosidae stuck onto me. The two of us grappled as we fell; me trying to not get bitten, and it trying to bite down on me.

I suddenly felt something wind around my leg, and my free-falling stopped with a jerk. The force of my stop dislodged the theraphosidae from me. and I was left hanging upside down as I watched the theraphosidae disappear into the darkness below, hissing as it went.

I looked up at my leg to see a black ribbon tied around it, leading back up to the bridge.

* * *

The four of us stood waiting back in the ballroom as all the teams for this class of Beacon were officially announced by Headmaster Ozpin.

"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." Ozpin said as four guys walked onto the stage and stood before him. "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!" I watched as the large television screens above the stage showed the faces of the four new teammates as Ozpin finished talking.

I and the rest of the room gave polite applause as the four boys stepped off the stage.

"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie" Ozpin said as the applause died down. That's our cue. "The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR." Ozpin paused as the room went into applause again. "Led by... Jaune Arc!"

Wait... ME!?

"Me?" I asked Ozpin.

But he only gave me a mysterious smile; "Congratulations, young man. I expect _great _things"

"Congratulations, Jaune!" Pyrrha said as she punched me on the shoulder. "And thanks for believing in me" she whispered.

Ow! That hurt!

"No problem" I answered as Pyrrha's punch staggered me slightly, but at least I didn't fall over or something; that could have almost have been as embarrassing as when I threw up on the airship.

The four of us left the stage as the final team was formed: "And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long." Ozpin said, gesturing to the final four students of this year. "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"

I watched as Yang hugged her sister.

* * *

It's night time now, a perfect time to do this.

I made sure the rest of my team was asleep before getting up and leaving our dorm room.

Me! Leader?! Who would've thought?

Well, actually, I don't think I can be a leader anyway. Especially not when I'm so weak...

I closed our dorm room as quietly as I could, holding tightly onto _Crocea Mors & Armun_ so that they didn't accidentally bump into anything.

I turned around to come face to face with Ruby.

We blinked at each other for a moment before Ruby yawned and rubbed her eye with her free hand, Ruby was currently was wearing a black tank top and rose-patterned white pyjama bottoms with a sleep mask attached to her head. In her other holding a platter of cookies of all things.

"J-Jaune?" she asked, squinting at me. "What are you doing?"

"Ah..." I was not expecting this. "You're dreaming, Ruby"

It's worth a shot... I guess.

And miraculously, it worked: "oh... okay" Ruby mumbled before turning to her room unlocking it and entering, leaving me alone in the hallway. "Bake me more cookies then, Jaune"

I gave a sigh of relief as I sagged slightly against the wall.

Standing back up, I began making my way outside.

"I do this for everyone's good" I muttered as I clenched _Crocea Mors_.

* * *

**So I tried to have a little fun with Pyrrha's character, not really sure how that worked out in the end because I had to redo it many times. The first version of this chapter actual had the Deathstalker in it, but then I realized Jaune and Pyrrha never came across the cave, so I had to take that out. The second version had a pack of Boarbatusks, but I felt that I wrote them too stupidly to work out, and so we ended up with this version; the spider version!**

**Character Sheet will be posted sometime later this day or tomorrow.**

**Have a good day,**

**Desodus**


	5. Character Sheet

**Here is the character sheet for Jaune in my story. For some reason, 's formatting keeps messing up my word documents, so it ended up like the way it appears.**

* * *

**Jaune Character Sheet**

**Name: Jaune Arc**

**Class: The Gamer | HP: 670/670**

**Level: 14 | Stamina: 106/106**

**Age: 17 | Gender: Male**

**Attribute: Light, Healing, Protection | ****Aura: 500/5000**

**STR: 35 | Race: Human**

**DEX: 20 | Defense Rating: 98**

**VIT: 25 | Aura: 500/5000**

**INT: 15**

**WIS: 4**

**LUK: 5**

**Points: 0**

**Money: 1005 Lien**

**SKILLS**

**Skill: Physical Endurance: Lv. 26**

Type: Passive

Current: 8% reduced physical damage.

Description: The body's durability increases and takes less damage.

**Skill: Sword Mastery Lv. 27**

Type: Passive

Current: 6% increase to damage dealt & 4% increased to attack speed.

Description: the ability to wield a sword skillfully.

**Danger Sense Lv. 15**

Type: Passive

Current: 6% increase in danger perception.

Description: the ability to perceive danger and react in a timely fashion.

**Skill: Block: Lv. 22**

Type: Passive

Current: 7% increased to damage blocked.

Description: taking reduced damage from attacks that are blocked.

**Skill: Armor Mastery: Lv. 19**

Type: Passive

Current: 6% increase in Defense Rating.

Description: Understanding and use of armor.

**Skill: A Gamer's Mind**

Type: Passive

Description: the Ability to calm down during times of stress/adrenaline to make critical analysis/observation of current surroundings/events.

**Skill: A Gamer's Body**

Type: Passive

Description: When taking damage, the body will receive a mild sense of pain, but will soon disappear, leaving only a decrease of the Health Bar (Unless stated otherwise) and no other physical remnants of damage taken.

**Skill: Observation**

Type: Active

Description: Used to gather slight better detailed information.

**Skill: Shield Bash Lv. 3**

Type: Active

Current: Consumes 20 Stamina to deal 20 Damage, but MAY stun the target for 1 second.

Description: Hitting your opponent really hard with your shield.

**Skill: Aura Healing**

**Type: Passive**

**Current: Consume 50 Aura to heal 100HP until fully healed, or Aura reaches 1 unit.**

**Description: Those with either large Aura stores, or specifically trained, are able to heal themselves from all many of wounds at the cost of their Aura.**

**ITEMS**

**Item: _Crocea Mors _(Legendary)**

Damage: 200

Durability: Impeccable

Ability: Grimm Bane: +20 Damage per hit against Grimm & -10 to Grimm Defense Rating.

Description:_ Crocea Mors_ has been wielded against the forces of Grimm for generations, its blade has ended the existence of thousands of Grimm.

?:?

?:?

Description: Arc Family heirloom.

**Item: _Crocea Armun _(Legendary)**

Defense Rating: 75

Durability: Impeccable

Ability: Able to transform into a sheath

?:?

?:?

Description: Arc Family heirloom.

**Item: Steel Breastplate**

Defense Rating: 15

Durability: Medium

Description: A simple, durable breastplate made of steel.


	6. Chapter 5

**Edit: Have done some minor editing that was forgotten earlier yesterday.**

**New chapter once more. I know many people have concerns and questions regarding his skills, levels and experience gain. Those will be answered at the bottom.**

**Disclaimer: All Intellectual Property are not of my own design.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: School Days**

I spent the night fiddling with the skill points I had gained earlier that day from the initiation. After that, I spent the next few hours swinging my sword, hitting trees with my shield, and even an hour trying to physically access my Aura to no success.

I realized that just swinging my sword as a form to get more experience and to level up the skill is no longer enough; I need a real fight, the experience gained from leveling skills up is no longer enough.

I needed to kill Grimm.

I returned in the waning hours of the late night or very early hours of the very early morning.

The last thing I remember was falling face first onto my bed before everything went dark.

* * *

"-UNE! JAUNE!" I think someone was calling my name, but I didn't want to open my eyes and destroy the illusion that I was asleep. "JAUNE!" the voice continued to cry. "Wake up, we're going to be late for class!"

Class? Oh yeah.

Beacon Academy.

Classes.

Fun.

I rolled over and blearily opened my eyes. This was odd, I still feel tired.

I blinked and focused as a new message appeared:

**Lack of Sleep Debuff Activated!**

**(-3 INT)**

**(-3 DEX)**

Oh, so lack of sleep is detrimental to me too. For a video game, my life is really realistic in terms of game-play; that would generally add to a game's experience when playing it, but what would I give to be able to fast forward through hours or days, or even 'pause' the game to plan ahead or something... maybe ven be able to 'fast travel' to locations.

I wonder if there was an autosave and quick save function; there wasn't from what I could see, because I have never gotten a message saying 'my progressed has been saved' or had some kind of icon in the corner of my field of vision spinning around until it disappeared.

"Good, you're up" I looked over as I was drawn out of my thoughts to see Pyrrha already dressed in her new school uniform; consisting of a plaid skirt, a white blouse, brown vest, a dark purplish suit jacket trimmed with gold over that, and a red ribbon-tie thing.

The girl's uniform was not that different from the male one; ours was a navy blue suit (also trimmed with gold), a white dress shirt, blue sweater-vest, and red tie.

"Morning, Pyrrha" I said as I stretched and then yawned. I looked over to see Ren and Nora still asleep. "What about them?"

"They both wont wake up, no matter what I do" Pyrrha answered with a frown at her failure.

"They'll get up... eventually" I said as I grabbed the pieces of my uniform as I made my way out of the room to the bathrooms and showers on this floor. "Be back in a bit" I said as I left the room.

After finishing my shower and changing, I made my way back to my room, but there was just one problem...

I couldn't open my room door. The door handle had disappeared... oh wait, Headmaster Ozpin said something about our scrolls being the keys to access our specific dorms, and that was being implemented this morning.

But my scroll was inside my room...

So began knocking on my own dorm room. Luckily, since Pyrrha was already awake, she answered the door.

"Thanks Pyrrha" I said as I entered our room. "Forgot to take my scroll with me earlier"

"No problem, Jaune" Pyrrha said as she closed the door behind me.

I took a glance and saw that it was only just a little past seven-thirty. Which means I had a little over three hours of sleep. I stifled a yawn as I checked and verified that my lack of sleep debuff was still active.

"We should really wake them up now" I said through another yawn. "We wouldn't want to miss breakfast on our very first day of classes"

"Speaking of classes" I continued as I realized something. "What classes do we have today?"

"Um, we all have Grimm Studies together at nine o'clock" Pyrrha said as one hand came up to tap her chin in thought. "I believe that we then have History together later in the afternoon, I wouldn't know anymore than that. The other classes are on your own"

"Thanks again, Pyrrha" I said as I grabbed my scroll and searched for my own class schedule.

After finding it, it appears that I had Nature Studies with Professor Peach at one in the afternoon, and a 'Leader's Workshop' in the evening.

All in all, wasn't that hard of a first day...

Well the rest of the week just got harder though; Combat Training with Professor Goodwitch three times a week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, Grimm Studies again with Professor Port on Thursday, History again on Friday morning, and another Leader Workshop on Tuesday, followed by Nature Studies again.

I tried and failed to stifle the sixth or seventh yawn of the morning. Glancing over at the remaining two sleeping members of my team...

My team. That just sounds weird, even to myself.

"I guess we should wake them up" I said to Pyrrha. "Especially if they might miss breakfast by this point"

I heard a scuttling sound and looking up, found Nora's bed suddenly empty. I looked around the room for her, and when I turned around to look behind me, that was where I found her; standing very close to, our faces just inches from each other as she wore a humongous grin.

I jumped back to regain my personal space as the shock disappeared from seeing her suddenly so close.

Nora remained standing where she was, still smiling widely at me.

"Did someone say 'breakfast'?" she asked.

I slowly nodded my head in answer.

"That's great!" Nora declared, throwing her hands into the air as she began to flit across the room. "I better go wake Ren-Ren then" she said after a moment to herself.

Nora gave another smile as she pranced over to Ren's sleeping body. Pyrrha and I watched as she leaned over his body and began to whisper something into the guy's ear.

She backed off after a couple of seconds of that and stepped back, watching Ren.

I opened my mouth to ask her about what she had done when suddenly, Ren shot up from his bed, his eyes wide and fully awake.

"Good morning, Ren-Ren!" Nora greeted, moving up to hug him like it was a normal occurrence that she awake her friend like this.

"How many times have I told you not to wake me up like that?" Ren sighed as he returned the hug weakly. "And stop calling me that!"

"But Ren-Ren..." Nora said as she pulled away. "How else am I going to wake you up without mentioning the fact tha-"

"Okay!" Ren cried as he covered Nora's mouth, silencing her before us. "Okay, Nora. Let's just get ready for school"

I watched this bizarre scene as Nora vigorously nodded her head while still having her mouth covered by Ren.

Ren finally released Nora and she sped off; so fast that I only saw a blur as she zoomed around the room before leaving, she left Pyrrha in a dizzy mess when she passed by, forcing me to help steady Pyrrha as she lurched around.

"Oh, thank you, Jaune" Pyrrha said as one hand went up to massage her temple.

"It's alright" I said as I released her.

An odd look crossed her face when I let go, but it disappeared as soon it had arrived. "Are you alright, Pyrrha?" I asked, watching her face. Maybe she had a cold or something.

"Oh, I'm fine, Jaune" Pyrrha answered, springing back from me as she waved a hand dismissively in front of herself.

"Be back soon" I turned to see Ren give a short wave as he left the dorm as well.

"See ya" I called after him.

As I turned back to face Pyrrha, I realized that I forgot to place my sword and shield back into my locker. I should do that now before we go get breakfast.

I grabbed _Crocea Mors _& _Crocea Armun_ ad made sure I had my scroll on me this time before heading to the door.

"I'm going to my locker" I said to Pyrrha whom was on her bed reading a book.

She looked up and then her eyes rested on my sword and shield for a moment before biding me goodbye.

"I'm be back in a minute" I called as I closed the dorm door.

As I was making my way down the hall, there was suddenly the sound of a shrill whistle. I turned around and looked at the source of the sound: the dorm room of team RWBY.

I gave a shrug as I made my way to the locker room and placed away the heirlooms beside my breastplate.

I closed my locker with a **CLANG!** and made my way back to my room.

As I was about to open the door, I turned to look at team RWBY's door once more.

It wouldn't hurt to ask them to eat breakfast with us, we did finish initiation together.

I knocked on the door and waited for an answer.

I stood waiting for a bit before knocking once more.

Still no one answered the door.

I learned closer to the door to hear the sound of furniture being moved around. I guess they were setting up their room to their preferences.

I knocked on the door one last time, almost pounding on it.

This time, someone came to answer.

The person to greet me from team RWBY was the 'Y' of the team; Yang dressed in her uniform answered the door.

"Good morning, Yang" I said as I gave a nod of greeting.

"Oh, hello, Vomit-boy" she greeted back with a smirk, causing me to frown at her.

"Are you going to keep calling me that?" I asked, covering my mouth as I yawned. "I had motion sickness, it's a very common problem"

Yang adopted a look of deep thought as she held her chin in one hand. "Then let's go with Lady-killer!" she said with a laugh.

"Yang!" I heard someone from inside call. "What are you doing?"

"Lady-killer is paying little ol' us a visit!" Yang called back before turning to me once more.

"So why are you here?" she asked as she leaned against the door-frame.

"Oh, I was wondering you wanted to eat breakfast before class starts" I said with a smile that turned into a frown as I faced Yang.

A look of shock had replaced the smirk on Yang's face., before that was replaced with a dangerous glint in her eyes and her lips curved into a wide grin.

Just as she was about to say something, someone else joined us;

"Did you say it was Jaune?" someone asked from behind Yang.

The two of us turned to see Ruby coming up from inside their dorm room.

When Yang had turned around, I had a good look at their room; it had the same beds but there was also a bunch of other things adorning the room; there was a bookshelf, a painting, a couple of poster, a few desks as well, and even a practice dummy of all things.

The beds were also haphazardly piled in the center of the room, and before it stood Blake and Weiss facing us as their attention shifted from their redecoration to me.

"You won't believe what Vomit-boy here just did" Yang said as she looped an arm around the shoulders of her younger sister.

I frowned at Yang as she dragged Ruby to stand beside her and in front of me.

"Good morning, Jaune" Ruby greeted with a smile before turning to Yang with a look of confusion on her face. "What did he do?"

I smiled in return; "And good morning to you too, Ruby" before I turned a frown at Yang. "What exactly did I do?"

"Well..." Yang drawled out as she turned her face back and forth between the two of us, grinning to hard I could see white teeth. "Lady-killer here just asked me out on a date. You work fast, Lady-killer!"

Whoa. Hold on. What!?

"Jaune!" Ruby cried as she turned to me with a sudden and utter look of betrayal. "How could you!?"

"Jaune did what?" I heard Weiss ask from inside their room.

There was suddenly the sound of a door being slammed and I turned around to see Pyrrha standing in front of our closed dorm door, smiling at Yang; "Yes, care to repeat that, Yang?"

The air in the hallway just suddenly got several degrees hotter for some reason, I tugged at my tie to open up my collar a little.

"You heard me" Yang said with her vicious grin still in place. "Jauney-boy here just asked me out to eat with him"

"Is this true, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, her voice sharp and tight as she turned her too sweet smile upon me.

**Danger Sense Increased to Level 15!**

"Well you see... um, I..." I couldn't get anything out for a second before my mind cleared. "Yang misunderstood" I said as I calmed down. "Well, more like I worded my question wrong" I turned to face Ruby and her team. "What I _wanted_ to ask was if team RWBY wanted to eat breakfast with team JNPR before classes started at nine"

I gave Pyrrha an apologetic look for some reason.

"That was just really, really bad wording on my part" I explained to Pyrrha.

Some of the tension in the air dissipated as I finished talking.

"Oh, is that what you meant?" Pyrrha asked as she turned to Yang and Ruby. "I'll be more than happy to have breakfast with team RWBY"

"Awwww" Yang gave a short whine. "But what if I promise you a _good_ time?"

"Ah..." I could feel my facing turning red as the heat entered my face before the heat dissipated as my mind cleared again.

But I was beaten to the punch by someone else:

"Stop trying to seduce Jaune!" Ruby said as she pushed her sister, causing Yang to fall back into their room as a heap on the floor. "We'll love to have breakfast with you guys" Ruby said to Pyrrha and I.

It seems the tension in the air was finally gone.

"Wait, what time is it?" Weiss asked from behind Ruby.

I gave a quick look to the corner before answering: "A little past eight o'clock"

"Well then we better hurry!" Weiss declared as she stood beside Ruby. "We have Grimm Studies at nine!"

"You too?" Pyrrha asked Weiss. "We have Grimm Studies with Professor Port as well"

"Then we should be off now!" Weiss said as she made to leave their dorm room.

"But what about the beds?" Black asked, joining us at the doorway to their dorm room. "We can't just leave them in a pile"

"We'll handle those after classes" Weiss said with a dismissive wave of her hand as she entered the hallway and stood next to Pyrrha. "What are you all waiting for?"

"We're waiting for Nora and Ren" I answered. "They're still getting-"

I turned around as I heard some weird chanting from down the hall. It sounded oddly like:

"Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes!"

So no, I wasn't hearing things as Weiss, Ruby and Pyrrha all turned to look at the source of the pancake chant.

And yep, it was her: down the hall, I could make our Nora speeding back towards up now in her school uniform.

"Pancake breakfast time!" she cried as she came to a stop before us. "Let's get pancakes!"

"We're still waiting for Ren" I said, gesturing to our lack of Ren in the area.

"Then I'll get him!" Nora declared with a punch in the air and she was off again, zooming back the way she had came.

The rest of us shared odd looks before there were several cries of alarm heard further down the hall where the male bathroom was located.

Not even seconds have passed before Nora returned to us, though she had indeed brought back Ren as well, carrying him in her arms as she stopped before us with a great smile upon her face.

"Let's go get pancakes!" Nora declared as she dropped her friend upon the hall floor.

"Nora!" Ren cried as he fell into a heap on the floor.

"Let's go! Let's go!" Nora chanted, ignoring her friend.

"Well, if everyone else is ready..." I turned around to look at all members of teams RWBY and JNPR, seeing everyone dressed and outside in the hall already. "I guess we can go now"

"Yay!" Nora declared as she grabbed Ren's arm and rushed back down the hall, dragging him along with her.

"I guess that's our cue as well" Yang said as she made her way down the hall as well, but at a much slower pace.

The rest of us made it to the cafeteria as a group while Nora and Ren were already beginning to eat their pancakes.

I watched as Nora inhaled pancake after pancake after pancake from the large stack in front of herself.

The remaining members of team JNPR and all of team RWBY entered the cafeteria line, after getting our food, we joined Ren and Nora at their table, oddly enough, the seating ended up as Ren, Nora, Pyrrha and I on one side of the table, while team RWBY sat on the other side facing us.

Conversation was pretty much non-existent at the table as everyone seemed occupied with their own thought, or in Pyrrha's case, ignoring my every attempt to start up a conversation.

There seemed to be some tension building around the table, but it came to a close when Ruby began talking about how much fun studying at Beacon will be and all the cool things she will be able to do while here.

When we had finished breakfast, we all made our way to our first class.

I lagged behind the rest of the guys with Pyrrha.

"Are you angry with me?" I asked her once the two of us were out of earshot of the others.

"No, whatever gave you that impression?" Pyrrha asked in return, flashing that sickly sweet smile at me again.

"Um..." I did not have a proper answer for that, and I doubt saying 'I had a feeling' would work too well either. "...Nothing" I relented after a while. "About earlier; I didn't mean to ask Yang out, it was a total misunderstanding" I tried explaining again what had happened.

"It's fine, Jaune" she said after my attempt of apologizing ended. "Just be more careful with your words next time" she smiled at me and punched my shoulder.

This time I did fall over; she packed a powerful punch!

* * *

Once we were all seated in the lecture room, Professor Port closed the class door and stepped into the center of the room where the entire front board were diagrams and notes of various species of Grimm, and above them all on a plaque was some kind of blunderbuss-axe hybrid.

"Monsters! Deeeemons... Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!" the professor began his lecture. "And you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy! Now, as I was saying: Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world!"

"Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses..." At this point in his lecture, he visibly gave Yang a wink before the entire class. "Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves! From what, you ask? Why, the very world!"

"Ayyyy-yep!" Someone cried from their seat as he stood up. The rest of the class including me turned to give him looks and he eventually sat back down.

"That is what you are training to become. But first: A story. A tale of a young, handsome man... Me! When I was a boy..." Professor Port said as he then proceeded to regale us with a tale of his youth, involving copious amounts of dead Grimm and oddly enough, cabbage smelling family members.

Said tale was also very boring to the point where most of the lecture hall was already asleep or occupying themselves doing something else.

The only reason I wasn't asleep myself was due to the fact though the story was very boring and full of long-winded self praise and the fact that he went on tangents off the most random things...

Professor Port also was able to convey weaknesses he himself was able to find while hunting Grimm, the best way to track Grimm, most notably the beowolves, and also, exploitable patterns in Grimm behaviour.

This was some very useful stuff...

One just had to sift through literally everything else before you find it.

"In the end, the Beowolf was no match for my sheer tenacity, and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high, celebrated as a hero!" Professor Port said as his story came to a close. "The moral of this story? A true Huntsman must be honorable! A true Huntsman must be dependable! A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise!" He turned back and scanned the entire class. "So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

"I do, sir!" Someone instantly replied as she stood up from her seat. It was Weiss, and she looked a little angry for some reason; the story wasn't that bad, was it?

"Well, then, let's find out!" the professor said as he gestured to the large metal cage behind him. "Step forward, and face your opponent!"

I blinked several times, surprised I had not noticed the rattling cage the entire time, even when entering the lecture room earlier.

Weiss left the room to change as the rest of the class sat up straighter or actually woke up in preparation to the fight.

When Weiss returned, she was dressed the same way she had entered the initiation; wearing a white dress and white cropped jacket over it.

The rest of team RWBY began cheering her on.

Before she snapped at Ruby for interrupting her concentration, forcing Ruby to lower her head in shame and apologize.

"Allllright!" Port declared as he hefted his axe/blunderbuss. "Let the match... begin!" he cried as she slashed off the lock of the cage door.

Before even the cage door touched the ground, whatever was inside was already charging out at Weiss. Forcing her to deflect the charge and tuck and roll away.

"Ha-ha! Wasn't expecting that, were you?" Port commented as Weiss stood back up and readied herself once more.

The thing she was fighting was: **Boarbatusk Lv. 19**

The fight went on for a bit, with both Ruby and Professor Port making comments and cheering Weiss on. Though, at one point, Weiss lost her focus on the boarbatusk for a moment in favor of looking at Ruby, and the boarbatusk was able to disarm Weiss. But Weiss was able to out-smart the boarbatusk and finish it off in one move.

"I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and... stay vigilant! Class dismissed!" Port said as he dismissed us.

And that was it for today's class for Grimm Studies.

I watched as Weiss stormed out of the room, chased by Ruby.

I took a moment to digest what Professor Port had just said: "assigned readings"... What 'assigned readings'

I turned to ask Pyrrha this. "Pyrrha, what readings are Professor Port talking about?"

"The readings from the assigned textbooks in the course syllabus" Pyrrha answered, giving me a weird look.

I gave a confused look to her in return as we left the lecture hall: "What textbooks? What course syllabus?"

"All of your course syllabuses are on your scroll, here" Pyrrha said as she waited for me to hand her my scroll, which I did.

I watched as Pyrrha tapped a little bit on the touch screen and then gave the device back to.

I looked at my scroll anew to see indeed, there were course syllabuses. Looking over the readings for this week in Grimm Studies, apparently, I was to read chapter one and two of _Grimm 101_.

"But what about textbooks?" I asked. "Aren't they supposed to supply us with them?"

Pyrrha gave me another weird look. "No, we were all given a list of books to buy when we were given our acceptance letters, didn't you get one as well?"

I stopped in the middle of the hallway as I was hit by a flashback scene; I _did_ get one, there was a piece of paper following my acceptance letter with a bunch of titles and names on it... But had been too preoccupied with celebrating to remember where I had thrown the rest of the package...

That's why dad gave me a thousand lien!

I was supposed to buy school books with that!

Pyrrha must have seen the look of dawning comprehension and horror upon my face. "You didn't buy the textbooks, did you, Jaune?"

I shook my head as my shoulders sagged. Oh man was I in deep trouble right now. Well, at least I had time to get them before tests or quizzes popped up.

"Don't worry, Jaune" Pyrrha said as she laid a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sure there's a store here selling them, and if not, you can always just take an airship to Vale. Until then, you could just use mine"

"Thanks, Pyrrha" I said weakly as we continued moving once more. Before I came to a stop once more; I needed textbooks tonight for the Leadership Workshop!

"I gotta go!" I said as I sped off. "See you later for Nature Class!"

* * *

"What do you mean 'you're out of stock!'" I exclaimed to the Beacon Academy Bookstore clerk. "There must be some somewhere!"

"I'm sorry, sir, but there was a slew of late purchases this year" the clerk answered with a shrug. "And we don't keep that many in stock regardless because of the small number of team leaders"

Dust! I couldn't wait for a restock either...

"We are receiving a new shipment tomorrow" the clerk said. "Would you like to reserve a copy?"

"No, no thanks" I said as I shook my head. I turned to go. "Thank you for your help" I said as I left the campus bookstore.

I took a glance at the clock in my upper right-hand corner; it was currently eleven-fifteen. The airship ride to Vale takes approximately forty to fifty minutes...

So no, there was barely enough travel time, but there wasn't for me to find a bookstore, buy, _and then_ be back in time for Professor Peach's class at one.

I gave a sigh and started heading to the cafeteria before stopping and turning back around to the bookstore.

I might as well pick up my textbooks for my other classes while I was here.

I walked out a bit later laden down with a dozen required readings in total for all of my courses, except the Leadership Workshop one of course.

I still had an hour and a half to puts these books back in my room and get something to eat for lunch before my next class.

re-entering my room was to find both Pyrrha and Ren both already looking inside their textbooks.

"Hey guys" I said as I used my leg to close our door room behind me.

Ren gave a short nod in return, while Pyrrha stopped what she was doing to look at me. "Did you just buy all of the textbooks you forgot to get?" she asked with a smile.

"Yep" I answered as I threw the bags of books onto my bed. "I'm still missing one though, so i will have to go to Vale to find it later this afternoon"

"Oh, would you like some company?" Pyrrha asked as she picked up her textbook and began reading from it once more, I could only make out the top of her head, the entirety of her face hidden behind the thick tome.

"No, there's no need" I said as I shook my head. "It's only a simple errand, no point you joining me for it"

"But I insist" Pyrrha said as her textbook fell from her face to reveal a fierce look in her eyes as her face set in determination. "As your partner, it is my duty to help you when possible!"

"It's totally fine, Pyrrha" I said, declining her aid again. "And as your leader, I say that I can do this on my own"

"... Fine" Pyrrha said as she turned away from me and began reading from her textbook once more.

"Okay..." I said as I remained standing in our room. "Anyone want to go get some lunch?"

"I already ate with Nora" Ren answered, still reading.

"I'm not hungry" was Pyrrha's reply.

"Okay, I'll see if anyone from team RWBY wants to get something then" I said as I made my way out of our room once more.

"On second thought, maybe I am a little bit hungry" Pyrrha said as she sprung from her bed, the textbook falling amidst the covers.

I held the door open as we left, receiving a quick "Thank you" in return before the two of us stood outside team RWBY's door once more.

I knocked for the second time this day upon team RWBY's door.

This time, I was answered after the first knock by Ruby.

"Oh, hi Jaune, hi Pyrrha" Ruby said looking between the two of us. "Ah, what brings you to the humble abroad of team RWBY?"

"We were wondering if anyone from your team would join us for some lunch" Pyrrha answered before I even opened my mouth.

"Oh, well, it's actually just me in here, so sure, I could go for some food" Ruby said as closed the dorm room behind her and the three of us were off to the cafeteria.

There was little conversation between the three of us as we made our way to the cafeteria, in fact, the whole feeling with Pyrrha and Ruby was very unsettling for some reason, it was also getting increasingly hot as well.

"So Ruby" Pyrrha said after a while of walking through an awkward silence. "How were you accepted into Beacon Academy?" Pyrrha gave an actual look of curiosity to Ruby.

"Oh, I was minding my own business in Vale when suddenly, the store I was in was getting robbed!" Ruby said as her eyes twinkled. Literally, they twinkled as she retold her story. "I was reading a magazine when this guy in a black suit starts threatening me with a sword! I threw him away when another attacked me and we both ended up going through the window.

Then I ended up beating a bunch of guys up all wearing the same black suit and red sunglasses before this guy in a white suit tried escaping with the stolen dust. I chased after him but he got into Bullhead and was escaping, he even blew me up with a dust crystal!"

"Wait, you didn't tell me about that earlier!" I cut in as I heard something new. "So you've blown up before?!"

"Oh, I didn't actual blow up that time, I was saved by Professor Goodwitch!" Ruby said, continuing her story. "She was soooo cool! She could fire stuff at them and even summoned a hail storm!"

"She does seem like a strong huntress" Pyrrha agreed.

"Yeah, but the bullhead was saved when this other woman from the ship showed up and starting throwing fire at us! She even blocked a couple shots from Crescent Rose! She was really strong as well!" Ruby said as she told of a woman whom control fire with her hands and could match Professor Goodwitch in a fight. "And then I got taken in for interrogation by Professor Goodwitch, but was saved by Headmaster Ozpin! He then offered me a spot here at Beacon! And I think he knew uncle Qrow too!"

Ruby was speaking faster and faster as she went on with her story.

"That was a very interesting story, Ruby" Pyrrha said once Ruby had calmed down. "I believe Headmaster Ozpin sees great things from you"

Suddenly, Ruby's shoulders slumped as she was no longer smiling, but then it was replaced with a look of determination and pride.

At this point, the three of us were in line waiting for our food. I ordered a spaghetti with meatballs and a slice of garlic bread, Pyrrha ordered the same, but Ruby instead decided to just have a plate of chocolate chip cookies for dinner.

Once we sat dawn, Ruby began instantly inhaling them one by one.

It took Ruby a moment to realize the two of us were watching her swallow cookies whole. Her face went beet red in the middle of stuffing her face.

I, ah... Really, really love cookies" Ruby said weakly after a particular hard swallow.

"We noticed" I answered as I began to eat my own dinner before it got cold.

"Anyway, Jaune, I feel that I should accompany you on your trip later" Pyrrha continued to try to help me.

"I know you care, Pyrrha, but seriously, I got this" I said with a sigh. "Really, it means a lot to me that you care so much about my studies, but really, I can handle this on my own"

"Where are you going, Jaune?" Ruby asked from in front of me.

"Oh? I'm going to Vale to try to find a textbook I forgot to buy before the term started" I answered with a embarrassed chuckle.

"Oh, that's cool" Ruby said as she continued eating her shrinking pile of cookies.

"Anyway, we should be heading to Professor's Peach class now" Pyrrha said as she stood up with her empty tray.

A quick check of the time showed we had about half an hour to get to class. "Okay Pyrrha" I said as I stood up as well with my tray in hand. "See ya, Ruby!" I called as we walked away, Ruby waved goodbye, still stuffing her face with cookies as we left.

* * *

It was when we were leaving Professor Peach's class that I bid Pyrrha goodbye as I headed to the docks where the airships were located.

Pyrrha frowned at me as I waved goodbye. Probably still not happy about being unable to accompany be to Vale for some reason.

I shook off Pyrrha's attention.

There was no reason why she wanted to come with me... she actually started to sound and act like mom now; always coddling me.

Well I don't need it! I'm going to prove myself here at Beacon and become strong, strong enough to hold the Arc name proudly like my father, and his father, and his father before him. All the way back to-!

... Is that _Crocea Mors_?

What I was currently looking at was a statue in front of Beacon Academy, I've passed it almost a dozen times now, but this was the first time I've noticed; the guy in armor in the stature is carrying a sword that looks exactly like mine!

"Are you enjoying the view, Mr. Arc?" A voice asked.

I turned around to see Headmaster Ozpin of all people walking towards me carrying a mug of something steaming.

* * *

**So, here I shall tell you how the experience system works in this story. But first; one of the main reasons why his stats give such low buffs is that I had no plan to make Jaune able to single-handily kill everything, maybe in the distant future, but not here. I wanted Jaune to work his ass off for the chance to stand side by side with those whom are so much stronger than himself.**

**The system goes that most skills start with 3%, and every five levels go up by 1%. At Level 25, that changes to 10% every five levels. Level 50, every five levels nets him 20%, and lastly, at Level 100 of a skill he gains an additional 500% on top of the skill's current ability and strength. So a skill at Level 100 would give a total bonus of 758%. Of course, getting to Level 100 is really, really hard.**

**Also, at each milestone level, Jaune unlocks special moves/combos that he may access... once he figures them out... obviously.**

**The experience system works that all completed tasks given will net experience points, leveling up skills also gives experience points... killing Grimm will give A LOT of experience points. Which was the one thing Jaune lacked throughout his early years was actual combat experience fighting Grimm, sure he sparred with his dad every day, but since he has never won, no experience is given, and Jaune as a character is coddled by his family. **

**I think this will answer the questions people have been asking in reviews. If not, feel free to continue asking.**

**In the end, I want this story to be of a complacent character that thought life would be easier than expected, and so he struggles now to catch up to his peers, and then to overcome them all, and then... Become more renown than anyone else in the history of his family; past, present, future.**

**On another note, I shall be editing previous chapters because I realized just how high leveled I made teams JNPR and RWBY. they will be lowered to the following:**

**Nora: Level 29**

**Pyrrha: Level 30**

**Ren: Level 27**

**Ruby:Level 27**

**Weiss: Level 28**

**Blake: Level 29**

**Yang:Level 30**

**Have a nice day,**

**Desodus**

**PS: I feel like I'm also starting to write the other characters of RWBY slightly OOC as well, especially Pyrrha.**


End file.
